Christopher Columbus and the New World - Book 4



BOOK 4

CHAPTER IV.
THE HOUR OF TRIUMPH 

From the moment when Columbus set foot on Spanish soil in the spring of 
1493 he was surrounded by a fame and glory which, although they were 
transient, were of a splendour such as few other men can have ever 
experienced. He had not merely discovered a country, he had discovered a 
world. He had not merely made a profitable expedition; he had brought the 
promise of untold wealth to the kingdom of Spain. He had not merely made 
himself the master of savage tribes; he had conquered the supernatural, 
and overcome for ever those powers of darkness that had been thought to 
brood over the vast Atlantic. He had sailed away in obscurity, he had 
returned in fame; he had departed under a cloud of scepticism and 
ridicule, he had come again in power and glory. He had sailed from Palos 
as a seeker after hidden wealth, hidden knowledge; he returned as teacher, 
discoverer, benefactor. The whole of Spain rang with 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 had now left the Vico Dritto di 
Ponticello in Genoa and were living at Savona. 

His life ashore in the first weeks following his return was a succession 
of triumphs and ceremonials. His first care on landing had been to go with 
the whole of his crew to the church of Saint George, where a Te Deum was 
sung in honour of his return; and afterwards to perform those vows that he 
had made at sea in the hour of danger. There was a certain amount of 
business to transact at Palos in connection with the paying of the ships' 
crews, writing of reports to the Sovereigns, and so forth; and it is 
likely that he stayed with his friends at the monastery of La Rabida while 
this was being done. The Court was at Barcelona; and it was probably only 
a sense of his own great dignity and importance that prevented Christopher 
from setting off on the long journey immediately. But he who had made so 
many pilgrimages to Court as a suitor could revel in a position that made 
it possible for him to hang back, and to be pressed and invited; and so 
when his business at Palos was finished he sent 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 he 
was to move across the whole of Spain. He was met at the gates of the city 
by a squadron of cavalry commanded by an envoy sent by Queen Isabella; and 
a procession was formed of members of the crew carrying parrots, alive and 
stuffed, fruits, vegetables, and various other products of the New World. 

In a prominent place came the Indians, or rather four of them, for one had 
died on the day they entered Palos and three were too ill to leave that 
town; but the ones that took part in the procession got all the more 
attention and admiration. The streets of Seville were crowded; crowded 
also were the windows, balconies, and roofs. The Admiral was entertained 
at the house of the Count of Cifuentes, where his little museum of dead 
and live curiosities was also accommodated, and where certain favoured 
visitors were admitted to view it. His two sons, Diego and Ferdinand, were 
sent from Cordova to join him; and perhaps he found time to visit Beatriz, 
although there is no record of his having been to Cordova or of her having 
come to Seville. 

Meanwhile his letters and messengers to the King and Queen had produced 
their due effect. The almost incredible had come to pass, and they saw 
themselves the monarchs not merely of Spain, but of a new Empire that 
might be as vast as Europe and Africa together. On the 30th of March they 
despatched a special messenger with a letter to Columbus, whose eyes must 
have sparkled and heart expanded when he read the superscription: "From 
the King and Queen to Don Christoval Colon, their Admiral of the Ocean 
Seas and Viceroy and Governor of the Islands discovered in the Indies." No 
lack of titles and dignities now! Their Majesties express a profound sense 
of his ability and distinction, of the greatness of his services to them, 
to the Church, and to God Himself. They hope that he will lose no time, 
but repair to Barcelona immediately, so that they can have the pleasure of 
hearing from his own lips an account of his wonderful expedition, and of 
discussing with him the preparations that must immediately be set on foot 
to fit out a new one. On receiving this letter Christopher immediately 
drew up a list of what he thought necessary for the new expedition and, 
collecting all his retinue and his museum of specimens, started by road 
for Barcelona. 

Every one in Spain had by this time heard more or less exaggerated 
accounts of the discoveries, and the excitement in the towns and villages 
through which he passed was extreme. Wherever he went he was greeted and 
feasted like a king returning from victorious wars; the people lined the 
streets of the towns and villages, and hung out banners, and gazed their 
fill at the Indians and at the strange sun-burned faces of the crew. At 
Barcelona, where they arrived towards the end of April, the climax of 
these glittering dignities was reached. When the King and Queen heard that 
Columbus was approaching the town they had their throne prepared under a 
magnificent pavilion, and in the hot sunshine of that April day they sat 
and waited the--coming of the great man. A glittering troop of cavalry had 
been sent out to meet him, and at the gates of the town a procession was 
formed similar to that at Seville. He had now six natives with him, who 
occupied an important place in the procession; sailors also, who carried 
baskets of fruit and vegetables from Espanola, with stuffed 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 if they were a wonder 
and marvel to the people of Spain, what must Spain have been to them with 
its great buildings and cities, its carriages and horses, its glittering 
dresses and armours, its splendour and luxury! We have no record of what 
the Indians thought, only of what the crowd thought who gaped upon them 
and upon the gaudy parrots that screeched and fluttered also in the 
procession. Columbus came riding on horseback, as befitted a great Admiral 
and Viceroy, surrounded by his pilots and principal officers; and followed 
by men bearing golden belts, golden masks, 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 and 
laughed to scorn in this same brilliant society! The crowds pressed so 
closely that the procession could hardly get through the streets; the 
whole population was there to witness it; and the windows and balconies 
and roofs of the houses, as well as the streets themselves, were thronged 
with a gaily dressed and wildly excited crowd. At length the procession 
reaches the presence of the King and Queen and, crowning and unprecedented 
honour! as the Admiral comes before them Ferdinand and Isabella rise to 
greet him. Under their own royal canopy a seat is waiting for him; and 
when he has made his ceremonial greeting he is invited 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 his 
subject justice; begins, we may be sure, with a preamble about the 
providence of God and its wisdom and consistency in preserving the 
narrator and preparing his life for this great deed; putting in a deal of 
scientific talk which had in truth nothing to do with the event, but was 
always applied to it in Columbus's writings from this date onwards; and 
going on to describe the voyage, the sea of weeds, the landfall, his 
intercourse 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 May in 
Andalusia," the noble rivers, and gorgeous scenery, the trees and fruits 
and flowers and singing birds; the spices and the cotton; and chief of 
all, the vast stores of gold and pearls of which the Admiral had brought 
home specimens. At various stages in his narrative he produces 
illustrations; now a root of rhubarb or allspice; now a raw nugget of 
gold; now a piece of gold laboured into a mask or belt; now a native 
decorated with the barbaric ornaments that were the fashion in Espanola. 
These things, says Columbus, are mere first-fruits of the harvest that is 
to come; the things which he, like the dove that had flown across the sea 
from the Ark and brought back an olive leaf in its mouth, has brought back 
across the stormy seas to that Ark of civilisation from which he had flown 
forth. 

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

The Sovereigns were delighted and profoundly impressed. Columbus wound up 
his address with an eloquent peroration concerning the glory to 
Christendom of these new discoveries; and there followed an impressive 
silence, during which the Sovereigns sank on their knees and raised hands 
and tearful eyes to heaven, an example in which they were followed by the 
whole of the assembly; and an appropriate gesture enough, seeing what was 
to come of it all. The choir of the Chapel Royal sang a solemn Te Deum on 
the spot; and the Sovereigns and nobles, bishops, archbishops, grandees, 
hidalgos, chamberlains, treasurers, chancellors and other courtiers, being 
exhausted by these emotions, retired to dinner. 

During his stay at Barcelona Columbus was the guest of the Cardinal- 
Archbishop of Toledo, and moved thus in an atmosphere of combined temporal 
and spiritual dignity such as his soul loved. Very agreeable indeed to him 
was the honour shown to him at this time. Deep down in his heart there was 
a secret nerve of pride and vanity which throughout his life hitherto had 
been continually mortified and wounded; but he was able now to indulge his 
appetite for outward pomp and honour as much as he pleased. When King 
Ferdinand went out to ride Columbus would be seen riding on one side of 
him, the young Prince John riding on the other side; and everywhere, when 
he moved among the respectful and admiring throng, his grave face was seen 
to be wreathed in complacent smiles. His hair, which had turned white soon 
after he was thirty, gave him a dignified and almost venerable appearance, 
although he was only in his forty-third year; and combined with his 
handsome and commanding presence to excite immense enthusiasm among the 
Spaniards. They forgot for the moment what they had formerly remembered 
and were to remember again--that he was a foreigner, an Italian, a man of 
no family and of poor origin. They saw in him the figure-head of a new 
empire and a new glory, an emblem of power and riches, of the dominion 
which their proud souls loved; and so there beamed upon him the brief 
fickle sunshine of their smiles and favour, which he in his delusion 
regarded as an earnest of their permanent honour and esteem. 

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

It is to this period of splendour that the story of the egg, which is to 
some people the only familiar incident in Columbian biography, is 
attributed. The story is that at a banquet given by the Cardinal-Arch 
bishop the conversation ran, as it always did in those days when he was 
present, on the subject of the Admiral's discoveries; and that one of the 
guests remarked that it was all very well for Columbus to have done what 
he did, but that in a country like Spain, where there were so many men 
learned in science and cosmography, and many able mariners besides, some 
one else would certainly have been found who would have done the same 
thing. Whereupon Columbus, calling for an egg, laid a wager that none of 
the 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 it stand 
on end, but without success. When it came to Columbus he cracked the shell 
at one end, making a flat surface on which the egg stood upright; thus 
demonstrating that a thing might be wonderful, not because it was 
difficult or impossible, but merely because no one had ever thought of 
doing it before. A sufficiently inane story, and by no means certainly 
true; but there is enough character in this little feat, ponderous, 
deliberate, pompous, ostentatious, and at bottom a trick and deceitful 
quibble, to make it accord with the grandiloquent public manner of 
Columbus, and to make it easily believable of one who chose to show 
himself in his speech and writings so much more meanly and pretentiously 
than 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 the 
colonisation of the new lands; there were intrigues, and parrying of 
intrigues, between the Spanish and Portuguese Courts on the subject of the 
discoveries and of the representative rights of the two nations to be the 
religious saviours of the New World. The Pope, to whose hands the heathen 
were entrusted by God to be handed for an inheritance to the highest and 
most religious bidder, had at that time innocently divided them into two 
portions, to wit: heathen to the south of Spain and Portugal, 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 the Spanish, and the heathen 
to the south to the Portuguese, and the two crowns had in 1479 come to a 
working agreement. Now, however, the existence of more heathen to the west 
of the Azores introduced a new complication, and Ferdinand sent a message 
to Pope Alexander VI. praying for a confirmation of the Spanish title to 
the new discoveries. 

This Pope, who was a native of Aragon and had been a subject of Ferdinand, 
was a stolid, perverse, and stubborn being; so much is advertised in his 
low forehead, impudent prominent nose, thick sensual lips, 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 new heathen; considers which 
country, Spain or Portugal, is most likely to hold and use the same for 
the increase of the Christian faith in general, the furtherance of the 
Holy Catholic Church in special, and the aggrandisement of Popes in 
particular; and shrewdly decides that the country in which the. 
Inquisition can flourish is the country to whom the heathen souls should 
be entrusted. He therefore issues a Bull, dated May 3, 1493, granting to 
the Spanish the possession of all lands, not occupied by Christian powers, 
that lie west of a meridian drawn one hundred leagues to the westward of 
the Azores, and to the Portuguese possession of all similar lands lying to 
the eastward of that line. He sleeps upon this Bull, and has inspiration; 
and on the morrow, May 4th, issues another Bull, drawing a line from the 
arctic to the antarctic pole, and granting to Spain all heathen 
inheritance to the westward of the same. The Pope, having signed this 
Bull, considers it further- assisted, no doubt, by the Portuguese 
Ambassador at the Vatican, to whom it has been shown; realises that in the 
wording of the Bull an injustice has been done to Portugal, since Spain is 
allowed to fix very much at her own convenience the point at which the 
line drawn from pole to pole shall cut the equator; and also because, 
although Spain is given all the lands in existence within her territory, 
Portugal is only given the lands which she may actually have occupied. 
Even the legal mind of the Pope, although much drowsed and blunted by 
brutish excesses, discerns faultiness in this document; and consequently 
on the same day issues a third Bull, in which the injustice to Portugal is 
redressed. Nothing so easy, thinks the Pope, as to issue Bulls; if you 
make a mistake in one Bull, issue another; and, having issued three Bulls 
in twenty-four hours, he desists for the present, having divided the 
earthly globe. 

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

In the meantime here are six heathen alive and well, or at any rate well 
enough to support, willy-nilly, the rite of holy baptism. They must have 
been sufficiently dazed and bewildered by all that had happened to them 
since they were taken on board the Admiral's ship, and God alone knows 
what they thought of it all, or whether they thought anything more than 
the parrots that screamed and fluttered and winked circular eyes in the 
procession with them. Doubtless they were willing enough; and indeed, 
after all they had come through, a little cold water could not do them any 
harm. So baptized they were in Barcelona; pompously baptized with infinite 
state and ceremony, the King and Queen and Prince Juan officiating as 
sponsors. Queen Isabella, after the manner of queens, took a kindly 
feminine interest in these heathen, and in their brethren across the sea. 
She had seen a good deal of conquest, and knew her Spaniard pretty 
intimately; and doubtless her maternal heart had some misgivings about the 
ultimate happiness of the gentle, handsome creatures who lived in the 
sunshine in that distant place. She made their souls her especial care, 
and honestly believed that by providing for their spiritual conversion she 
was doing them the greatest service in her power. She provided from her 
own private chapel vestments and altar furniture for the mission church in 
Espanola; she had the six exiles in Barcelona instructed under her eye; 
and she gave Columbus special orders to inflict severe punishments on any 
one who should offer the natives violence or injustice of any kind. It 
must be remembered to her credit that in after days, when slavery and an 
intolerable bloody and brutish oppression had turned the paradise of 
Espanola into a shambles, she fought almost singlehanded, and with an 
ethical sense far in advance of her day, against the system of slavery 
practised by Spain upon the inhabitants of the New World. 

The dignities that had been provisionally granted to Columbus before his 
departure on the first voyage were now elaborately confirmed; and in 
addition he was given another title--that of Captain-General of the large 
fleet which was to be fitted out to sail to the new colonies. He was 
entrusted with the royal seal, which gave him the right to grant letters 
patent, 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 of the sea 
or on a field azure, and five anchors or on a field azure. This was 
changed from time to time, chiefly by Columbus himself, who afterwards 
added a continent to the islands, and modified the blazonry of the lion 
and castle to agree with those on the royal arms--a piece of ignorance 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 the 
pension of ten thousand maravedis which had been offered to the member of 
the expedition who should first sight land. Columbus was granted a very 
large gratuity on his arrival in Barcelona, and even taking the product of 
the islands at a tenth part of their value as estimated by him, he still 
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 modern money(of 1900), 
which, taking the increase in the purchasing power of money 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; he saw the light, but it was 
Rodrigo de Triana, the look-out man on the Pinta, who first saw the actual 
land. Columbus in his narrative to the King and Queen would be sure to 
make much of the seeing of the light, and not so much of the actual 
sighting of land; and he was on the spot, and the reward was granted to 
him. Even if we assume that in strict equity Columbus was entitled to it, 
it was at least a matter capable of argument, if only Rodrigo de Triana 
had been there to argue it; and what are we to think of the Admiral of the 
Ocean Seas and Viceroy of the Indies who thus takes what can only be 
called a mean advantage of a poor seaman in his employ? It would have been 
a competence and a snug little fortune to Rodrigo de Triana; it was a mere 
flea-bite to a man who was thinking in eighth parts of continents. It may 
be true, as Oviedo alleges, that Columbus transferred it to Beatriz 
Enriquez; but he had no right to provide for her out of money that in all 
equity and decency ought to have gone to another and a poorer man. His 
biographers, some of whom have vied with his canonisers in insisting upon 
seeing virtue in his every action, have gone to all kinds of ridiculous 
extremes in accounting for this piece of meanness. Irving says that it was 
"a subject in which his whole ambition was involved"; but a plain person 
will regard it as an instance of greed and love of money. We must not 
shirk facts like this if we wish to know the man as he really was. That he 
was capable of kindness and generosity, and that he was in the main kind-
hearted, we have fortunately no reason to doubt; and if I dwell on some of 
his less amiable characteristics it is with no desire to magnify them out 
of their due proportion. They are part of that side of him that lay in 
shadow, as some 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 to us. 

It is quite of a piece with the character of Columbus that while he was 
writing a receipt for the look-out man's money and thinking what a pretty 
gift it would make for Beatriz Enriquez he was planning a splendid and 
spectacular thank-offering for all the dignities to which he had been 
raised; and, brooding upon the vast wealth that was now to be his, that he 
should register a vow to furnish within seven years an expedition of four 
thousand horse and fifty thousand foot for the rescue of the Holy 
Sepulchre, and a similar force within five years after the first if it 
should be necessary. It was probable that the vow was a provisional one, 
and that its performance was to be contingent on his actual receipt and 
possession of the expected money; for as we know, there was no money and 
no expedition. The vow was in effect a kind of religious flourish much 
beloved by Columbus, undertaken seriously and piously enough, but 
belonging rather to his public than to his private side. A much more 
simple and truly pious act of his was, not the promising of visionary but 
the sending of actual money to his old father in Savona, which he did 
immediately after his arrival in Spain. The letter which he wrote with 
that kindly remittance, not being couched in the pompous terms which he 
thought suitable for princes, and doubtless giving a brief homely account 
of what he had done, would, if we could come by it, be a document beyond 
all price; but like every other record of his family life it has utterly 
perished. 

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

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

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

While these preparations were going on the game of diplomacy was being 
played between the Courts of Spain and Portugal. King John of Portugal had 
the misfortune to be badly advised; and he was persuaded that, although he 
had lost the right to the New World through his rejection of Columbus's 
services when they were first offered to him, he might still discover it 
for himself, relying for protection on the vague wording of the papal 
Bulls. He immediately began to prepare a fleet, nominally to go to the 
coast of Africa, but really to visit the newly discovered lands in the 
west. Hearing of these preparations, King Ferdinand sent an Ambassador to 
the Portuguese Court; and King John agreed also to appoint an Ambassador 
to discuss the whole matter of the line of demarcation, and in the 
meantime not to allow any of his ships to sail to the west for a period of 
sixty days after his Ambassador had reached Barcelona. There followed a 
good deal of diplomatic sharp practice; the Portuguese bribing the Spanish 
officials to give them information as to what was going on, and the 
Spaniards furnishing their envoys with double sets of letters and 
documents so that they could be prepared to counter any movement on the 
part of King John. The idea of the Portuguese was that the line of 
demarcation should be a parallel rather than a meridian; and that 
everything north of the Canaries should belong to Spain and everything 
south to Portugal; but this would never do from the Spanish point of view. 
The fact that a proposal had come from Portugal, however, gave Ferdinand 
an opportunity of delaying the diplomatic proceedings until his own 
expedition was actually ready to set sail; and he wrote to Columbus 
repeatedly, urging him to make all possible haste with his preparations. 
In the meantime he despatched a solemn embassy to Portugal, the purport of 
which, much beclouded and delayed by preliminary and impossible proposals, 
was to submit the whole question to the Pope for arbitration. And all the 
time he was busy petitioning the Pope to restore to Spain those 
concessions granted in the second Bull, but taken away again in the third. 

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



CHAPTER V.
GREAT EXPECTATIONS 

July, August, and September in the year 1493 were busy months for 
Columbus, who had to superintend the buying or building and fitting of 
ships, the choice and collection of stores, and the selection of his 
company. There were fourteen caravels, some of them of low tonnage and 
light draught, and suitable for the navigation of rivers; and three large 
carracks, or ships of three to four hundred tons. The number of volunteers 
asked for was a thousand, but at least two thousand applied for permission 
to go with the expedition, and ultimately some fourteen or fifteen hundred 
did actually go, one hundred stowaways being included in the number. 
Unfortunately these adventurers were of a class compared with whom even 
the cut-throats and gaol-birds of the humble little expedition that had 
sailed the year before from Palos were useful and efficient. The universal 
impression about the new lands in the West was that they were places where 
fortunes could be picked up like dirt, and where the very shores were 
strewn with gold and precious stones; and every idle scamp in Spain who 
had a taste for adventure and a desire to get a great deal of money 
without working for it was anxious to visit the new territory. The result 
was that instead of artisans, farmers, craftsmen, and colonists, Columbus 
took with him a company at least half of which consisted of exceedingly 
well-bred young gentlemen who had no intention of doing any work, but who 
looked forward to a free and lawless holiday and an early return crowned 
with wealth and fortune. Although the expedition was primarily for the 
establishment of a colony, no Spanish women accompanied it; and this was 
but one of a succession of mistakes and stupidities. 

The Admiral, however, was not to be so lonely a person as he had been on 
his first voyage; friends of his own choice and of a rank that made 
intimacy possible even with the Captain-General were to accompany him. 
There was James his brother; there was Friar Bernardo Buil, a Benedictine 
monk chosen by the Pope to be his apostolic vicar in the New World; there 
was Alonso de Ojeda, a handsome young aristocrat, cousin to the Inquisitor 
of Spain, who was distinguished for his dash and strength and pluck; an 
ideal adventurer, the idol of his fellows, and one of whose daring any 
number of credible and incredible tales were told. There was Pedro 
Margarite, a well-born Aragonese, who was destined afterwards to cause 
much trouble; there was Juan Ponce de Leon, the discoverer of Florida; 
there was Juan de La Cosa, Columbus's faithful pilot on the Santa 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 historian of the New 
World and the champion of decency and humanity there. There was also 
Doctor Chanca, a Court physician who accompanied the expedition not only 
in his professional capacity but also because his knowledge of botany 
would enable him to make, a valuable report on the vegetables and fruits 
of the New World; there was Antonio de Marchena, one of Columbus's oldest 
friends, who went as astronomer to the expedition. And there was one Coma, 
who would have remained unknown to this day but that he wrote an 
exceedingly elegant letter to his friend Nicolo Syllacio in Italy, 
describing in flowery language the events of the second voyage; which 
letter, and one written by Doctor Chanca, are the only records of the 
outward voyage that exist. The journal kept by Columbus on this voyage has 
been lost, and no copy of it remains. 

Columbus settled at Cadiz during the time in which he was engaged upon the 
fitting out of the expedition. It was no light matter to superintend the 
appointment of the crews and passengers, every one of whom was probably 
interviewed by Columbus himself, and at the same time to keep level with 
Archdeacon Fonseca. This official, it will be remembered, had a 
disagreement with Columbus as to the number of personal attendants he was 
to be allowed; and on the matter being referred to the King and Queen they 
granted Columbus the ridiculous establishment of ten footmen and 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 Queen 
about small matters which occurred to her from time to time, to answer 
them fully and satisfactorily, and at the same time to make out all the 
lists of things that would likely be required both for provisioning the 
voyage and establishing a colony. The provisions carried in those days 
were not very different from the provisions carried on deep-sea vessels at 
the present time--except that canned meat, for which, with its horrors and 
conveniences, the world may hold Columbus responsible, had not then been 
invented. Unmilled wheat, salted flour, and hard biscuit formed the bulk 
of the provisions; salted pork was the staple--of the meat supply, with an 
alternative of salted fish; while cheese, peas, lentils and beans, oil and 
vinegar, were also carried, and honey and almonds and raisins for the 
cabin table. Besides water a large provision of rough wine in casks was 
taken, and the dietary scale would probably compare favourably with that 
of the British and American mercantile service sixty years ago. In 
addition a great quantity of seeds of all kinds were taken for planting in 
Espanola; sugar cane, rice, and vines also, and an equipment of 
agricultural implements, as well as a selection of horses and other 
domestic animals for breeding purposes. Twenty mounted soldiers were also 
carried, and the thousand and one impedimenta of naval, military, and 
domestic existence. 

In the middle of all these preparations news came that a Portuguese 
caravel had set sail from Madeira in the direction of the new lands. 
Columbus immediately reported this to the King and Queen, and suggested 
detaching part of his fleet to pursue her; but instead King John was 
communicated with, and he declared that if the vessel had sailed as 
alleged it was without his knowledge and permission, and that he would 
send three ships after her to recall her--an answer which had to be 
accepted, although it opened up rather alarming possibilities of four 
Portuguese vessels reaching the new islands instead of one. Whether these 
ships ever really sailed or not, or whether the rumour was merely a rumour 
and an alarm, is not certain; but Columbus was ordered to push on his 
preparations with the greatest possible speed, to avoid Portuguese waters, 
but to capture any vessels which he might find in the part of the ocean 
allotted to Spain, and to inflict summary punishment on the crews. As it 
turned out he never saw any Portuguese vessels, and before he had returned 
to Spain again the two nations had come to an amicable agreement quite 
independently of the Pope and his Bulls. Spain undertook to make no 
discoveries to the east of the line of demarcation, and Portugal none to 
the west of it; and so the matter remained until the inhabitants of the 
discovered lands began to have a voice in their own affairs. 

With all his occupations Columbus found time for some amenities, and he 
had his two sons, Diego and Ferdinand, staying with him at Cadiz. Great 
days they must have been for these two boys; days filled with excitement 
and commotion, with the smell of tar and the loading of the innumerable 
and fascinating materials of life; and many a journey they must have made 
on the calm waters of Cadiz harbour from ship to ship, dreaming of the 
distant seas that these high, quaintly carven prows would soon be 
treading, and the wonderful bays and harbours far away across the world 
into the waters of which their anchors were to plunge. 

September 24th, the day before the fleet sailed, was observed as a 
festival; and in full ceremonial the blessing of God upon the enterprise 
was invoked. The ships were hung with flags and with dyed silks and 
tapestries; every vessel flew the royal standard; and the waters of the 
harbour resounded with the music of trumpets and harps and pipes and the 
thunder of artillery. Some Venetian galleys happened to enter the harbour 
as the fleet was preparing to weigh, and they joined in the salutes and 
demonstrations which signalled the departure. The Admiral hoisted his flag 
on the 'Marigalante', one of the largest of the ships; and somewhere among 
the smaller caravels the little Nina, re-caulked and re-fitted, was also 
preparing to brave again the dangers over which she had so staunchly 
prevailed. At sunrise on the 25th the fleet weighed anchor, with all the 
circumstance and bustle and apparent confusion that accompanies the 
business of sailing-ships getting under weigh. Up to the last minute 
Columbus had his two sons on board with him, and it was not until the 
ripples were beginning to talk under the bow of the Marigalante that he 
said good-bye to them and saw them rowed ashore. In bright weather, with a 
favourable breeze, in glory and dignity, and with high hopes 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 have been 
to him and to the numerous company to whom these waters were a strange and 
new region, has not the romantic interest for us that his first voyage 
had. To the faith that guided him on his first venture knowledge and 
certainty had now been added; he was going by a familiar road; for to the 
mariner a road that he has once followed is a road that he knows. As a 
matter of fact, however, this second voyage was a far greater test of 
Columbus's skill as a navigator than the first voyage had been. If his 
navigation had been more haphazard he might never have found again the 
islands of his first discovery; and the fact that he made a landfall 
exactly where he wished to make it shows a high degree of exactness in his 
method of ascertaining latitude, and is another instance of his skill in 
estimating his dead-reckoning. If he had been equipped with a modern 
quadrant and Greenwich chronometers he could not have made a quicker 
voyage nor a more exact landfall. 

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

On setting his course from Ferro Columbus issued sealed instructions to 
the captain of each ship which, in the event of the fleet becoming 
scattered, would guide them to the harbour of La Navidad in Espanola; but 
the captains had strict orders not to open these instructions unless their 
ships became separated from the fleet, as Columbus still wished to hold 
for himself the secret of this mysterious road to the west. There were no 
disasters, however, and no separations. The trade wind blew soft and 
steady, wafting them south and west; and because of the more southerly 
course steered on this voyage they did not even encounter the weed of the 
Sargasso Sea, which they left many leagues on their starboard hand. The 
only incident of the voyage was a sudden severe hurricane, a brief summer 
tempest which raged throughout one night and terrified a good many of the 
voyagers, whose superstitious fears were only allayed when they saw the 
lambent flames of the light of Saint Elmo playing about the rigging of the 
Admiral's ship. It was just the Admiral's luck that this phenomenon should 
be observed over his ship and over none of the others; it added to his 
prestige as a person peculiarly favoured by the divine protection, and 
confirmed his own belief that he held a heavenly as well as a royal 
commission. 

The water supply had been calculated a little too closely, and began to 
run low. The hurried preparation of the ships had resulted as usual in bad 
work; most of them were leaking, and the crew were constantly at work at 
the pumps; and there was the usual discontent. Columbus, however, knew by 
the signs as well as by his dead-reckoning that he was somewhere close to 
land; and with a fine demonstration of confidence he increased the ration 
of water, instead of lowering it, assuring the crews that they would 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 that he ordered 
the fleet to take in sail and go on slowly until morning. As the Sunday 
dawned and the sky to the west was cleared of the morning bank of clouds 
the look-out on the Marigalante reported land ahead; and sure enough the 
first sunlight of that day showed them a green and verdant island a few 
leagues away. 

As they approached it Columbus christened it Dominica in honour of the day 
on which it was discovered. He sailed round it; but as there was no 
harbour, and as another island was in sight to the north, he sailed on in 
that direction. This little island he christened Marigalante; and going 
ashore with his retinue he hoisted the royal banner, and formally took 
possession of the whole group of six islands which were visible from the 
high ground. There were no inhabitants on the island, but the voyagers 
spent some hours wandering about its tangled woods and smelling the rich 
odours of spice, and tasting new and unfamiliar fruits. They next sailed 
on to an island to the north which Columbus christened Guadaloupe as a 
memorial of the shrine in Estremadura to which he had made a pious 
pilgrimage. They landed on this island and remained a week there, in the 
course of which they made some very remarkable discoveries. 

The villagers were not altogether unfriendly, although they were shy at 
first; but red caps and hawks' bells had their usual effect. There were 
signs of warfare, in the shape of bone-tipped arrows; there were tame 
parrots much larger than those of the northern islands; they found pottery 
and rough wood carving, and the unmistakable stern timber of a . European 
vessel. But they discovered stranger things than that. They found human 
skulls used as household utensils, and gruesome fragments of human bodies, 
unmistakable remains of a feast; and they realised that at last they were 
in the presence of a man-eating tribe. Later they came to know, something 
of the habits of the islanders; how they made raiding expeditions to the 
neighbouring islands, and carried off large numbers of prisoners, 
retaining the women as concubines and eating the men. The boys were 
mutilated and fattened like capons, being employed as labourers until they 
had arrived at years of discretion, at which point they were killed and 
eaten, as these cannibal epicures did not care for the flesh of women and 
boys. There were a great number of women on the island, and many of them 
were taken off to the ships--with their own consent, according to Doctor 
Chanca. The men, however, eluded the Spaniards and would not come on 
board, having doubtless very clear views about the ultimate destination of 
men who were taken prisoners. Some women from a neighbouring island, who 
had been captured by the cannibals, came to Columbus and begged to be 
taken on board his ship for protection; but instead of receiving them he 
decked them with ornaments and sent them ashore again. The cannibals 
artfully stripped off their ornaments and sent them back to get some more. 

The peculiar habits of the islanders added an unusual excitement to shore 
leave, and there was as a rule no trouble in collecting the crews and 
bringing them off to the ships at nightfall. But on one evening it was 
discovered that one of the captains and eight men had not returned. An 
exploring party was sent of to search for them, but they came back without 
having found anything, except a village in the middle of the forest from 
which the inhabitants had fled at their approach, leaving behind them in 
the cooking pots a half-cooked meal of human remains--an incident which 
gave the explorers a distaste for further search. Young Alonso de Ojeda, 
however, had no fear of the cannibals; this was just the kind of occasion 
in which he revelled; and he offered to take a party of forty men into the 
interior to search for the missing men. He went right across the island, 
but was able to discover nothing except birds and fruits and unknown 
trees; and Columbus, in great distress of mind, had to give up his men for 
lost. He took in wood and water, and was on the point of weighing anchor 
when the missing men appeared on the shore and signalled for a boat. It 
appeared that they had got lost in a tangled forest in the interior, that 
they had tried to climb the trees in order to get their bearings by the 
stars, but without success; and that they had finally struck the sea-shore 
and followed it until they had arrived opposite the anchorage. 

They brought some women and boys with them, and the fleet must now have 
had a large number of these willing or unwilling captives. This was the 
first organised transaction of slavery on the part of Columbus, whose 
design was to send slaves regularly back to Spain in exchange for the 
cattle and supplies necessary for the colonies. There was not very much 
said now about religious conversion, but only about exchanging the natives 
for cattle. The fine point of Christopher's philosophy on this subject had 
been rubbed off; he had taken the first step a year ago on the beach at 
Guanahani, and after that the road opened out broad before him. Slaves for 
cattle, and cattle for the islands; and wealth from cattle and islands for 
Spain, and payment from Spain for Columbus, and money from Columbus for 
the redemption of the Holy Sepulchre--these were the links in the chain of 
hope that bound him to his pious idea. He had seen the same thing done by 
the Portuguese on the Guinea coast, and it never occurred to him that 
there was anything the matter with it. On the contrary, at this time his 
idea was only to take slaves from among the Caribs and man-eating 
islanders as a punishment for their misdeeds; but this, like his other 
fine ideas, soon had to give way before the tide of greed and conquest. 

The Admiral was now anxious to get back to La Navidad, and discover the 
condition of the colony which he had left behind him there. He therefore 
sailed from Guadaloupe on November 20th and steered to the north-west. His 
captive islanders told him that the mainland lay to the south; and if he 
had listened to them and sailed south he would have probably landed on the 
coast of South America in a fortnight. He shaped his course instead to 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 Caribs here, and 
his men had a brush with them, one of the crew being wounded by a poisoned 
arrow of which he died in a few days. The Carib Chiefs were captured and 
put in irons. They sailed again and passed a group of islets which 
Columbus named after Saint Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins; 
discovered Porto Rico also, in one of the beautiful harbours of which they 
anchored and stayed for two days. Sailing now to the west they made land 
again on the 22nd of November; and coasting along it they soon sighted the 
mountain of Monte Christi, and Columbus recognised that he 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 the 
harbour of Monte Christi, and a party was sent ashore to prospect for a 
site suitable for the new town which he intended to build, for he was not 
satisfied with the situation of La Navidad. There was a large river close 
by; and while the party was surveying the land they came suddenly upon two 
dead bodies lying by the river-side, one with a rope round its neck and 
the other with a rope round its feet. The bodies were too much decomposed 
to be recognisable; nevertheless to the party rambling about in the 
sunshine and stillness of that green place the discovery was a very 
gruesome one. They may have thought much, but they said little. They 
returned to the ship, and resumed their search on the next day, when they 
found two more corpses, one of which was seen to have a large quantity of 
beard. As all the natives were beardless this was a very significant and 
unpleasant discovery, and the explorers returned at once and reported what 
they had seen to Columbus. He thereupon set sail for La Navidad, but the 
navigation off that part of the coast was necessarily slow because of the 
number of the shoals and banks, on one of which the Admiral's ship had 
been lost the year before; and the short voyage occupied three days. 

They arrived at La Navidad late on the evening of the 27th--too late to 
make it advisable to land. Some natives came out in a canoe, rowed round 
the 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; but 
there was no response except from the echoes that went rattling among the 
islands, and from the frightened birds that rose screaming and circling 
from the shore. No guns and no signal fires; no sign of human habitation 
whatever; and no sound out of the weird darkness except the lap of the 
water and the call of the birds . . . . The night passed in anxiety and 
depression, and in a certain degree of nervous tension, which was relieved 
at two or three o'clock in the morning by the sound of paddles and the 
looming of a canoe through the dusky starlight. Native voices were heard 
from the canoe asking in a loud voice for the Admiral; and when the 
visitors had been directed to the Marigalante they refused to go on board 
until Columbus himself had spoken to them, and they had seen by the light 
of a lantern that it was the Admiral himself. The chief of them was a 
cousin of Guacanagari, who said that the King was ill of a wound in his 
leg, or that he would certainly have come himself to welcome the Admiral. 
The Spaniards? Yes, they were well, said the young chief; or rather, he 
added ominously, those that remained were well, but some had died of 
illness, and some had been killed in quarrels that had arisen among them. 
He added that the province had been invaded by two neighbouring kings who 
had burned many of the native houses. This news, although grave, was a 
relief from the dreadful uncertainty that had prevailed 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 in 
sight, nor any native canoes; the harbour was silent and deserted. When 
the party had landed and gone up to the place where the fort had been 
built they found no fort there; only the blackened and charred remains of 
a fort. The whole thing had been burned level with the ground, and amid 
the blackened ruins they found pieces of rag and clothing. The natives, 
instead of coming to greet them, lurked guiltily behind trees, and when 
they were seen fled away into the woods. All this was very disquieting 
indeed, and in significant contrast to their behaviour of the year before. 
The party from the ship threw buttons and beads and bells to the retiring 
natives in order to try and induce them to come forward, but only four 
approached, one of whom was a relation of Guacanagari. These four 
consented to go into the boat and to be rowed out to the ship. Columbus 
then spoke to them through his interpreter; and they admitted what had 
been only too obvious to the party that went ashore--that the Spaniards 
were all dead, and that not one of the garrison remained. It seemed that 
two neighbouring kings, Caonabo and Mayreni, had made an attack upon the 
fort, burned the buildings, and killed and wounded most of the defenders; 
and that Guacanagari, who had been fighting on their behalf, had also been 
wounded and been obliged to retire. The natives offered to go and fetch 
Guacanagari himself, and departed with that object. 

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

Columbus set some of his party searching in the ditch of the fort in case 
any treasure should have been buried there, as he had ordered it should be 
in event of danger, and while this was going on he walked along the coast 
for a few miles to visit a spot which he thought might be suitable for the 
new settlement. At a distance of a mile or two he found a village of seven 
or eight huts from which the inhabitants fled at his approach, carrying 
such of their goods as were portable, and leaving the rest hidden in the 
grass. Here were found several things that had belonged to the Spaniards 
and which were not likely to have been bartered; new Moorish mantles, 
stockings, bolts of cloth, and one of the Admiral's lost anchors; other 
articles also, among them a dead man's head wrapped up with great care in 
a small basket. Shaking their own living heads, golumbus and his party 
returned. Suddenly they came on some suspicious-looking mounds of earth 
over which new grass was growing. An examination of these showed them to 
be the graves of eleven of the Spaniards, the remains of the clothing 
being quite sufficient to identify them. Doctor Chanca, who examined them, 
thought that they had not been dead two months. Speculation came to an end 
in the face of this eloquent certainty; there were the dead bodies of some 
of the colonists; and the voyagers knelt round with bare heads while the 
bodies were replaced in the grave and the ceremony of Christian burial 
performed over them. 

Little by little the dismal story was elicited from the natives, who 
became less timid when they saw that the Spaniards meant them no harm. It 
seemed that Columbus had no sooner gone away than the colonists began to 
abandon themselves to every kind of excess. While the echo of the 
Admiral's wise counsels was yet in their ears they began to disobey his 
orders. Honest work they had no intention of doing, and although Diego 
Arana, their commander, did his best to keep order, and although one or 
two of the others were faithful to him and to Columbus, their authority 
was utterly insufficient to check the lawless folly of the rest. Instead 
of searching for gold mines, they possessed themselves by force of every 
ounce of gold they could steal or seize from the natives, treating them 
with both cruelty and contempt. More brutal excesses followed as a matter 
of course. Guacanagari, in his kindly indulgence and generosity, had 
allowed them to take three native wives apiece, although he himself and 
his people were content with one. But of course the Spaniards had thrown 
off all restraint, however mild, and ran amok among the native 
inhabitants, seizing their wives and seducing their daughters. Upon this 
naturally followed dissensions among themselves, jealousy coming hot upon 
the heels of unlawful possession; and, in the words of Irving, "the 
natives beheld with astonishment the beings whom they had worshipped as 
descended from the skies abandoned to the grossest of earthly passions and 
raging against each other with worse than brutal ferocity." 

Upon their strifes and dissensions followed another breach of the 
Admiral's wise regulations; they no longer cared to remain together in the 
fort, but split up into groups and went off with their women into the 
woods, reverting to a savagery beside which the gentle existence of the 
natives was high civilisation. There were squabbles and fights in which 
one or two of the Spaniards were killed; and Pedro Gutierrez and Rodrigo 
de Escovedo, whom Columbus had appointed as lieutenants to Arana, headed a 
faction of revolt against his authority, and took themselves off with nine 
other Spaniards and a great number of women. They had heard a great deal 
about the mines of Cibao, and they decided to go in search of them and 
secure their treasures for themselves. They went inland into a territory 
which was under the rule of King Caonabo, a very fierce Carib who was not 
a native of Espanola, but had come there as an adventurer and remained as 
a conqueror. Although he resented the intrusion of the Spaniards into the 
island he would not have dared to come and attack them there if they had 
obeyed the Admiral's orders and remained in the territory of Guacanagari; 
but when they came into his own country he had them in a trap, and it was 
easy for him to fall upon those foolish swaggering Spaniards and put them 
to death. He then decided to go and take the fort. 

He formed an alliance with the neighbouring king, Mayreni, whose province 
was in the west of the island. Getting together a force of warriors these 
two kings marched rapidly and stealthily through the, forest for several 
days until they arrived at its northern border. They came in the dead of 
night to the neighbourhood of La Navidad, where the inhabitants of the 
fortress, some ten in number, were fast asleep. Fast asleep were the 
remaining dozen or so of the Spaniards who were living in houses or huts 
in the neighbourhood; fast asleep also the gentle natives, not dreaming of 
troubles from any quarter but that close at hand. The sweet silence of the 
tropical night was suddenly broken by frightful yells as Caonabo and his 
warriors rushed the fortress and butchered the inhabitants, setting fire 
to it and to the houses round about. As their flimsy huts burst into 
flames the surprised Spaniards rushed out, only to be fallen upon by the 
infuriated blacks. Eight of the Spaniards rushed naked into the sea and 
were drowned; the rest were butchered. Guacanagari manfully came to their 
assistance and with his own followers fought throughout the night; but his 
were a gentle and unwarlike people, and they were easily routed. The King 
himself was badly wounded in the thigh, but Caonabo's principal object 
seems to have been the destruction of the Spaniards, and when that was 
completed he and his warriors, laden with the spoils, retired. 

Thus Columbus, walking on the shore with his native interpreter, or 
sitting in his cabin listening with knitted brow to the accounts of the 
islanders, learns of the complete and utter failure of his first hopes. It 
has come to this. These are the real first-fruits of his glorious conquest 
and discovery. The New World has served but as a virgin field for the Old 
Adam. He who had sought to bring light and life to these happy islanders 
had brought darkness and death; they had innocently clasped the sword he 
had extended to them and cut themselves. The Christian occupation of the 
New World had opened with vice, cruelty, and destruction; the veil of 
innocence had been rent in twain, and could never be mended or joined 
again. And the Earthly Paradise in which life had 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 a shambles by the 
introduction of human rule and civilised standards of wealth. Gold first 
and then women, things beautiful and innocent in the happy native 
condition of the islands, had been the means of the disintegration and 
death of this first colony. These are serious considerations for any 
coloniser; solemn considerations for a discoverer who is only on the verge 
and beginning of his empire-making; mournful considerations for 
Christopher as he surveys the blackened ruins of the fort, or stands bare-
headed by the grass-covered graves. 

There seemed to be a certain hesitancy on the part of Guacanagari to 
present himself; for though he kept announcing his intention of coming to 
visit the Admiral he did not come. A couple of days after the discovery of 
the remains, however, he sent a message to Columbus begging him to come 
and see him, which the Admiral accordingly did, accompanied by a formal 
retinue and carrying with him the usual presents. Guacanagari was in bed 
sure enough complaining of a wounded leg, and he told the story of the 
settlement very much as Columbus had already heard it from the other 
natives. He pointed to his own wounded leg as a sign that he had been 
loyal and faithful to his friendly promises; but when the leg was examined 
by the surgeon in order that it might be dressed no wound could be 
discovered, and it was obvious to Doctor Chanca that the skin had not been 
broken. This seemed odd; Friar Buil was so convinced that the whole story 
was a deception that he wished the Admiral to execute Guacanagari on the 
spot. Columbus, although he was puzzled, was by no means convinced that 
Guacanagari had been unfaithful to him, and decided to do nothing for the 
present. He invited the cacique to come on board the flagship; which he 
did, being greatly interested by some of the Carib prisoners, notably a 
handsome woman, named by the Spaniards Dofia Catalina, with whom he held a 
long conversation. 

Relations between the Admiral and the cacique, although outwardly cordial, 
were altogether different from what they had been in, the happy days after 
their first meeting; the man seemed to shrink from all the evidence of 
Spanish power, and when they proposed to hang a cross round his neck the 
native king, much as he loved trinkets and toys, expressed a horror and 
fear of this jewel when he learned that it was an emblem of the Christian 
faith. He had seen a little too much of the Christian religion; and Heaven 
only knows with what terror and depression the emblem of the cross 
inspired him. He went ashore; and when a messenger was sent to search for 
him a few days afterwards, it was found that he had moved his whole 
establishment into the interior of the island. The beautiful native woman 
Catalina escaped to shore and disappeared at the same time; and the two 
events were connected in the minds of some of the Spaniards, and held, 
wrongly as it turned out, to be significant of a deep 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 both 
directions, but none of them found a suitable place; and on December 7th 
the whole fleet sailed to the east in the hope of finding a better 
position. They were driven by adverse winds into a harbour some thirty 
miles to the east of Monte Christi, and when they went ashore they decided 
that this was as good a site as any for the new town. There was about a 
quarter of a mile of level sandy beach enclosed by headlands on either 
side; there was any amount of rock and stones for building, and there was 
a natural barrier of hills and mountains a mile or so inland that would 
protect a camp from that side.--The soil was very fertile, the vegetation 
luxuriant; and the mango swamps a little way inland drained into a basin 
or lake which provided an unlimited water supply. Columbus therefore set 
about establishing a little town, to which he gave the name of Isabella. 
Streets and squares were laid out, and rows of temporary buildings made of 
wood and thatched with grass were hastily run up for the accommodation of 
the members of the expedition, while the foundations of three stone 
buildings were also marked out and the excavations put in hand. These 
buildings were the church, the storehouse, and a residence for Columbus as 
Governor-General. The stores were landed, the horses and cattle 
accommodated ashore, the provisions, ammunition, and agricultural 
implements also. Labourers were set to digging out the foundations of the 
stone buildings, carpenters to cutting down trees and running up the light 
wooden houses that were to serve as barracks for the present; masons were 
employed in hewing stones and building landing-piers; and all the crowd of 
well-born adventurers were set to work with their hands, much to their 
disgust. This was by no means the life they had imagined, and at the first 
sign of hard work they turned sulky and discontented. There was, to be 
sure, some reason for their discontent. Things had not quite turned out as 
Columbus had promised they should; there was no store of gold, nor any 
sign of great desire on the part of the natives to bring any; and to add 
to their other troubles, illness began to break out in the camp. The 
freshly-turned rank soil had a bad effect on the health of the garrison; 
the lake, which had promised to be so pleasant a feature in the new town, 
gave off dangerous malarial vapours at night; and among the sufferers from 
this trouble was Columbus himself, who endured for some weeks all the 
pains and lassitude of the disagreeable fever. 

The ships were now empty and ready for the return voyage, and as soon as 
Columbus was better he set to work to face the situation. After all his 
promises it would never do to send them home empty or in ballast; a cargo 
of 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 gold 
mines of Cibao, and he determined to make an attempt to find these, so 
that he could send his ships home laden with a cargo that would be some 
indemnity for the heavy cost of the expedition and some compensation for 
the bad news he must write with regard to his first settlement. Young 
Ojeda was chosen to lead an expedition of fifteen picked men into the 
interior; and as the gold mines were said to be in a part of the island 
not under the command of Guacanagari, but in the territory of the dreaded 
Caonabo, there was no little anxiety felt about the expedition. 

Ojeda started in the beginning of January 1494, and marched southwards 
through dense forests until, having crossed a mountain range, he came down 
into a beautiful and fertile valley, where they were hospitably received 
by the natives. They saw plenty of gold in the sand of the river that 
watered the valley, which sand the natives had a way of washing so that 
the gold was separated from it; and there seemed to be so much wealth 
there that Ojeda hurried back to the new city of Isabella to make his 
report to Columbus. The effect upon the discontented colonists was 
remarkable. Once more everything was right; wealth beyond the dreams of 
avarice was at their hand; and all they had to do was to stretch out their 
arms and take it. Columbus felt that he need no longer delay the despatch 
of twelve of his ships on the homeward voyage. If he had not got 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 in the 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 set about writing 
his report to the Sovereigns. Other people, as we know, were writing 
letters too; the reiterated promise of gold, and the marvellous anecdotes 
which these credulous settlers readily believed from the natives, such as 
that there was a rock close by out of which gold would burst if you struck 
it with a club, raised greed and expectation in Spain 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 to 
the King and Queen of Spain in the end of January 1494, and as they read 
it some weeks later. Their comments, written in the margin of the 
original, are printed in italics at the end of each paragraph. It was 
drawn 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 Alcalde 
of the City of Isabella, are to say and supplicate on my part to the King 
and 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 that 
at one moment looked desperate and at another were all hope. Columbus was 
struggling manfully with difficulties that were already beginning to be 
too much for him. The Man from Genoa, with his guiding star of faith in 
some shore beyond the mist and radiance of the West--see into what strange 
places and to what strange occupations this star has led him! The blue 
visionary eyes, given to seeing things immediately beyond the present 
horizon, must fix themselves on accounts and requisitions, on the needs of 
idle, aristocratic, grumbling Spaniards; must fix themselves also on that 
blank void in the bellies of his returning ships, where the gold ought to 
have been. The letter has its practical side; the requisitions are made 
with good sense and a grasp of the economic situation; but they have a 
deeper significance than that. All this talk about little ewe lambs, wine 
and bacon (better than the last lot, if it please your Highnesses), little 
yearling calves, and fifty casks of molasses that can be bought a ducat or 
two cheaper in Madeira in the months of April and May than at any other 
time or place, is only half real. Columbus fills his Sovereigns' ears with 
this clamour so that he shall not hear those embarrassing questions that 
will inevitably be asked about the gold and the spices. He boldly begins 
his letter with the old story 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 by wordy deviations, so that to one reading his letter it 
really might seem as though the true business of the expedition was to 
provide Coronel, Mosen Pedro, Gaspar, Beltran, Gil Garcia, and the rest of 
them with work and wages. Everything that occurs to him, great or little, 
that makes it seem as though things were humming in the new settlement, he 
stuffs into this document, shovelling words into the empty hulls of the 
ships, and trying to fill those bottomless pits with a stream of talk. A 
system of slavery is boldly and bluntly sketched; the writer, in the hurry 
and stress of the moment, giving to its economic advantages rather greater 
prominence than to its religious glories. The memorandum, for all its 
courageous attempt to be very cool and orderly and practical, gives us, if 
ever a human document did, a picture of a man struggling with an 
impossible situation which he will not squarely face, like one who should 
try 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 the 
hand 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 a 
feverish brow. Isabella believed in him; perhaps she read between the 
lines of this document, and saw, as we can see, how much anxiety and 
distress were written there; and her comments are steadying and 
encouraging. He has done well; what he asks is being attended to; their 
Highnesses are well informed in regard to this and that matter; suitable 
provision will be made for everything; but let him endeavour that the 
amount of this gold may be known as precisely as possible. There is no 
escaping from that. The Admiral (no one knows it better than himself) must 
make good his dazzling promises, and coin every boastful word into a 
golden excelente of Spain. Alas! he must no longer write about the lush 
grasses, the shining rivers, the brightly coloured parrots, the gaudy 
flies and insects, the little singing birds, and the nights that are like 
May in Cordova. He must find out about the gold; for it has come to grim 
business in the Earthly Paradise.