THE NEW COLONY--EXPEDITIONS OF DISCOVERY-GUACANAGARI --SEARCH FOR GOLD--MUTINY IN THECOLONY--THE VESSELS SENT HOME--COLUMBUS MARCHESINLAND--COLLECTION OF GOLD--FORTRESS OF ST.
THOMAS--A NEW VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY--JAMAICAVISITED--THE SOUTH SHORE OF CUBA EXPLORED--RETURN--EVANGELISTA DISCOVERED--COLUMBUS FALLS SICK-RETURN TO ISABELLA.
Columbus had hoped, with reason, to send back a part of the vesselswhich made up his large squadron, with gold collected in the year by thecolonists at La Navidad. In truth, when, in 1501, the system of gold-washing-had been developed, the colony yielded twelve hundred poundsof gold in one year. The search for gold, from the beginning, broke up allintelligent plans for geographical discovery or for colonization. In thiscase, it was almost too clear that there was nothing but bad news to sendback to Spain. Columbus went forward, however, as well as he could, withthe establishment of a new colony, and with the search for gold.
He sent out expeditions of discovery to open relations with the natives,and to find the best places for washing and mining for gold. MelchiorMeldonado commanded three hundred men, in the first of theseexpeditions. They came to a good harbor at the mouth of a river, wherethey saw a fine house, which they supposed might be the home ofGuacanagari. They met an armed party of one hundred Indians; but thesemen put away their weapons when signals of peace were made, andbrought presents in token of good-will.
The house to which they went was round, with a hemispherical roof ordome. It was thirty-two paces in diameter, divided by wicker work intodifferent rooms. Smaller houses, for persons of rank lower than the chiefs,surrounded it. The natives told the explorers that Guacanagari himself hadretired to the hills.
On receiving the report of these explorers Columbus sent out Ojedawith a hundred men, and Corvalan with a similar party in different directions. These officers, in their report, described the operation of gold-washing, much as it is known to explorers in mining regions to-day. Thenatives made a deep ditch into which the gold bearing sand should settle.
For more important work they had flat baskets in which they shook thesand and parted it from the gold. With the left hand they dipped up sand,handled this skilfully or "dextrously" with the right hand, so that in a fewminutes they could give grains of gold to the gratified explorers. Ojedabrought home to Columbus one nugget which weighed nine ounces.
They also brought tidings of the King of Canoaboa, of whom they hadheard before, and he is called by the name of Caunebo himself.[*] He wasafterwards carried, as a prisoner or as a hostage, on the way to Spain; butdied on the passage.
[*] The name is spelled in many different ways.
Columbus was able to dispatch the returning ships, with theencouraging reports brought in by Meldonado and Ojeda, but with verylittle gold. But he was obliged to ask for fresh supplies of food for thecolony--even in the midst of the plenty which he described; for he hadfound already what all such leaders find, the difficulty of training men touse food to which they were not accustomed. He sent also his Caribprisoners, begging that they might be trained to a knowledge of thechristian religion and of the Spanish language. He saw, already, how muchhe should need interpreters. The fleet sailed on the second of February,and its reports were, on the whole, favorably received.
Columbus chose for the new city an elevation, ten leagues east ofMonte Christi, and at first gave to his colony the name of Martha. It is theIsabella of the subsequent history.
The colonists were delighted with the fertility of the soil under thetropical climate. Andalusia itself had not prepared them for it. Theyplanted seeds of peas, beans, lettuces, cabbages and other vegetables, anddeclared that they grew more in eight days than they would have grown intwenty at home. They had fresh vegetables in sixteen days after theyplanted them; but for melons, pumpkins and other fruits of that sort, theyare generous enough to allow thirty days.
They had carried out roots and suckers of the sugar-cane. In fifteen days the shoots were a cubit high. A farmer who had planted wheat in thebeginning of February had ripe grain in the beginning of April; so thatthey were sure of, at least, two crops in a year.
But the fertility of the soil was the only favorable token which theisland first exhibited. The climate was enervating and sickly. The labor onthe new city was hard and discouraging. Columbus found that his colonistswere badly fitted for their duty, or not fitted for it at all. Court gentlemendid not want to work. Priests expected to be put on better diet than anyother people. Columbus--though he lost his own popularity--insisted onputting all on equal fare, in sharing the supplies he had brought from Spain.
It did not require a long time to prove that the selection of the site of thecolony was unfortunate. Columbus himself gave way to the generaldisease. While he was ill, a mutiny broke out which he had to suppress bystrong measures.
Bornal Diaz, who ranked as comptroller of the expedition, and FerminCedo, an assayer, made a plot for seizing the remaining ships and sailingfor Europe. News of the mutiny was brought to Columbus. He found adocument in the writing of Diaz, drawn as a memorial, accusingColumbus himself of grave crimes. He confined Diaz on board a ship to besent to Spain with the memorial. He punished the mutineers of lower rank.
He took the guns and naval munitions from four of the vessels, andentrusted them all to a person in whom he had absolute confidence.
On the report of the exploring parties, four names were given to asmany divisions of the island. Junna was the most western, Attibunia themost eastern, Jachen the northern and Naiba the southern. Columbushimself, seeing the fortifications of the city well begun, undertook, inMarch, an exploration, of the island, with a force of five hundred men.
It was in the course of this exploration that one of the natives broughtin a gold-bearing stone which weighed an ounce. He was satisfied with alittle bell in exchange. He was surprised at the wonder expressed by theSpaniards, and showing a stone as large as a pomegranate, he said that hehad nuggets of gold as large as this at his home. Other Indians brought ingold-bearing stones which weighed more than an ounce. At their homes,also, but not in sight, alas, was a block of gold as large as an infant's head.
Columbus himself thought it best to take as many men as he could intothe mountain region. He left the new city under the care of his brother,Diego, and with all the force of healthy men which he could muster,making a little army of nearly five hundred men, he marched away fromthe sickly seaboard into the interior. The simple natives were astonishedby the display of cavalry and other men in armor. After a few days of adelightful march, in the beauty of spring in that country, he entered uponthe long sought Cibao. He relinquished his first idea of founding anothercity here, but did build a fortress called St. Thomas, in joking reference toCedo and others, who had asserted that these regions produced no gold.
While building this fortress, as it was proudly called, he sent a youngcavalier named Luxan for further exploration.
Luxan returned with stories even greater than they had heard of before,but with no gold, "because he had no orders to do so." He had found ripegrapes. And at last they had found a region called Cipangi, cipansignifying stone. This name recalled the memory of Cipango, or Japan.
With tidings as encouraging as this, Columbus returned to his city. Heappointed his brother and Pedro Margarita governors of the city, and leftwith three ships for the further exploration of Cuba, which he had left onlypartly examined in his first voyage. He believed that it was the mainlandof Asia. And as has been said, such was his belief till he died, and that ofhis countrymen. Cuba was not known to be an island for many yearsafterwards. He was now again in the career which pleased him, and forwhich he was fitted. He was always ill at ease in administering a colony,or ruling the men who were engaged in it. He was happy and contentedwhen he was discovering. He had been eager to follow the southern coastof Cuba, as he had followed the north in his first voyage. And now he hadhis opportunity. Having commissioned his brother Diego and Margaritaand appointed also a council of four other gentlemen, he sailed to explorenew coasts, on the twenty-fourth of April.
He was soon tempted from his western course that he might examineJamaica, of which he saw the distant lines on the south. "This island," saysthe account of the time, "is larger than Sicily. It has only one mountain,which rises from the coast on every side, little by little, until you come to the middle of the island and the ascent is so gradual that, whether you riseor descend, you hardly know whether you are rising or descending."Columbus found the island well peopled, and from what he saw of thenatives, thought them more ingenious, and better artificers, than anyIndians he had seen before. But when he proposed to land, they generallyshowed themselves prepared to resist him. He therefore deferred a fullexamination of the island to his return, and, with the first favorable wind,pressed on toward the southern coast of Cuba. He insisted on calling thisthe "Golden Chersonesus" of the East. This name had been given by theold geographers to the peninsula now known as Malacca.
Crossing the narrow channel between Jamaica and Cuba, he begancoasting that island westward. If the reader will examine the map, he willfind many small keys and islands south of Cuba, which, before any surveyhad been made, seriously retarded his westward course. In every case hewas obliged to make a separate examination to be sure where the realcoast of the island was, all the time believing it was the continent of Asia.
One of the narratives says, with a pardonable exaggeration, that in all thisvoyage he thus discovered seven hundred islands. His own estimate wasthat he sailed two hundred and twenty-two leagues westward in theexploration which now engaged him.
The month of May and the beginning of June were occupied with suchexplorations. The natives proved friendly, as the natives of the northernside of Cuba had proved two years before. They had, in general, heard ofthe visit of the Spaniards ; but their wonder and admiration seem to havebeen none the less now that they saw the reality.
On one occasion the hopes of all the party, that they should findthemselves at the court of the Grand Khan, were greatly quickened. ASpaniard had gone into a forest alone, hunting. Suddenly he saw a manclothed in white, or thought he did, whom he supposed to be a friar of theorder of Saint Mary de Mercedes, who was with the expedition. But,almost immediately, ten other friars dressed in the same costume, appeared,and then as many as thirty. The Spaniard was frightened at themultiplication of their number, it hardly appears why, as they were all menof peace, or should have been, whatever their number. He called out to his companions, and bade them escape. But the men in white called out to him,and waved their hands, as if to assure him that there was no danger. He didnot trust them, however, but rushed back to the shore and the ship, as fastas he could, to report what he had seen to the Admiral.
Here, at last, was reason for hope that they had found one of theAsiatic missions of the Church. Columbus at once landed a party,instructing them to go forty miles inland, if necessary, to find people. Butthis party found neither path nor roadway, although the country was richand fertile. Another party brought back rich bunches of grapes, and othernative fruits. But neither party saw any friars of the order of Saint Mary.
And it is now supposed that the Spaniard saw a peaceful flock of whitecranes. The traveller Humboldt describes one occasion, in which the townof Angostura was put to alarm by the appearance of a flock of cranesknown as soldados, or "soldiers," which were, as people supposed, a bandof Indians.
In his interviews with the natives at one point and another, upon thecoast, Columbus was delighted with their simplicity, their hospitality, andtheir kindly dealing with each other. On one occasion, when the Mass wascelebrated, a large number of them were present, and joined in the service,as well as they could, with respect and devotion. An old man as much aseighty years old, as the Spaniards thought, brought to the Admiral a basketfull of fruit, as a present. Then he said, by an interpreter:
"We have heard how you have enveloped, by your power, all thesecountries, and how much afraid of you the people have been. But I have toexhort you, and to tell you that there are two ways when men leave thisbody. One is dark and dismal; it is for those who have injured the race ofmen. The other is delightful and pleasant; it is for those who, while alive,have loved peace and the repose of mankind. If, then, you remember thatyou are mortal, and what these retributions are, you will do no harm to anyone."Columbus told him in reply that he had known of the two roads afterdeath, and that he was well pleased to find that the natives of these landsknew of them; for he had not expected this. He said that the king andqueen of Spain had sent him with the express mission of bringing these tidings to them. In particular, that he was charged with the duty ofpunishing the Caribs and all other men of impure life, and of rewardingand honoring all pure and innocent men. This statement so delighted theold prophet that he was eager to accompany Columbus on a mission sonoble, and it was only by the urgent entreaty of his wife and children thathe stayed with them. He found it hard to believe that Columbus wasinferior in rank or command to any other sovereign.
The beauty of the island and the hospitality of the natives, however,were not enough to dispose the crews to continue this exploration further.
They were all convinced that they were on the coast of Asia. Columbusdid not mean that afterwards any one should accuse him of abandoning thediscovery of that coast too soon. Calling to their attention the distance theyhad sailed, he sent round a written declaration for the signature of everyperson on the ships. Every man and boy put his name to it. It expressedtheir certainty that they were on the cape which made the end of theeastern Indies, and that any one who chose could proceed thence westwardto Spain by land. Th............