Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

[1493 A.D.]

in the remote parts of Asia. The lands, therefore, which Columbus had visited were called the West Indies; and as he seemed to have entered upon a vast region of unexplored countries, existing in a state of nature, the whole received the comprehensive appellation of the New World.

During the whole of his sojourn at Barcelona, the sovereigns took every occasion to bestow on Columbus personal marks of their high consideration. He was admitted at all times to the royal presence, and the queen delighted to converse with him on the subject of his enterprises. The king, too, appeared occasionally on horseback, with Prince Juan on one side, and Columbus on the other. To perpetuate in his family the glory of his achievement, a coat-of-arms was assigned him, in which the royal arms, the castle and lion, were quartered with his proper bearings, which were a group of islands surrounded by waves. To these arms was afterwards annexed the motto:

A Castilla y á Leon,

Nuevo mundo dio Colon.

(To Castile and Leon

Columbus gave a new world.)

The pension which had been decreed by the sovereigns to him who in the first voyage should discover land, was adjudged to Columbus, for having first seen the light on the shore. It is said that the seaman who first descried the land was so incensed at being disappointed of what he conceived his merited reward, that he renounced his country and his faith, and going into Africa, turned Mussulman; an anecdote which rests merely on the authority of Oviedo,nn who is extremely incorrect in his narration of this voyage, and inserts many falsehoods told him by the enemies of the admiral.

It may, at first sight, appear but little accordant with the acknowledged magnanimity of Columbus, to have borne away the prize from this poor sailor, but this was a subject in which his whole ambition was involved, and he was doubtless proud of the honour of being personally the discoverer of the land as well as projector of the enterprise.

Thus honored by the sovereigns, courted by the great, idolised by the people, Columbus, for a time, drank the honeyed draught of popularity, before enmity and detraction had time to drug it with bitterness. His discovery burst with such splendour upon the world as to dazzle envy itself, and to call forth the general acclamations of mankind. Well would it be for the honour of human nature, could history, like romance, close with the consummation of the hero's wishes; we should then leave Columbus in the full fruition of great and well-merited prosperity. But his history is destined to furnish another proof, if proof be wanting, of the inconstancy of public favour, even when won by distinguished services. No greatness was ever acquired by more incontestable, unalloyed, and exalted benefits rendered to mankind, yet none ever drew on its possessor more unremitting jealousy and defamation, or involved him in more unmerited distress and difficulty.

FURTHER VOYAGES AND DEATH OF COLUMBUS (1493-1506 A.D.) Loaded with caresses, commendations, and honours, soon after Columbus re-embarked from Cadiz, September 25th, 1493, with seventeen sail, to make new discoveries and to establish colonies. He arrived at Hispaniola November 3rd, with twelve hundred men, soldiers, artificers, and missionaries, with provisions for their subsistence, with the seeds of all the plants

[1493-1496 A.D.]

that were thought likely to thrive in this hot and damp climate, and with the domestic animals of the old hemisphere, of which there was not one in the new. Columbus found nothing but ruins and carcasses upon the spot where he had left fortifications and Spaniards. These plunderers had occasioned their own destruction by their haughty, licentious, and tyrannical behaviour. Columbus had the address to persuade his men, who were eager to glut their vengeance upon the natives, that it was good policy to postpone their revenge to another time. A fort, honoured with the name of Isabella, was now constructed on the borders of the ocean; and that of St. Thomas was erected on the mountains of Cibao, where the islanders gathered from the torrents the greatest part of the gold they used for their ornaments, and where the conquerors intended to open mines.

While these works were going on, the provisions that had been brought from Europe had been either consumed or were spoilt. The colony had received nothing to supply the deficiency; and soldiers, or sailors, neither possessed the leisure, knowledge, nor inclination to produce fresh articles of subsistence. It became necessary to have recourse to the natives of the country, who, cultivating but little, were unable to maintain strangers, even though they were the most moderate persons of the old hemisphere, for they yet consumed, each of them, as much as would have been sufficient for several Indians. These unfortunate people gave up all they had, and still more was required. Such continued exactions produced an alteration in their character, which was naturally timid; and all the caciques, except Guanacanagari, who had first received the Spaniards in his dominions, resolved to unite their forces, in order to break a yoke which was becoming every day more intolerable.

Columbus desisted from pursuing his discoveries, in order to prepare against this unexpected danger. Although two-thirds of his followers had been hurried to the grave by hardships, by the climate, and by debauchery; although sickness prevented many of those who had escaped these terrible scourges from joining him; and although he could not muster more than two hundred infantry and twenty horse to face the enemy, yet this extraordinary man was not afraid of attacking an army, assembled in the plains of Vega Real.

The unhappy islanders were, in fact, conquered before the action began. They considered the Spaniards as beings of a superior order; their admiration, respect, and fear were increased by the European armour; and the sight of the cavalry, in particular, astonished them beyond measure. Many of them were simple enough to believe that the man and the horse were but one animal, or a kind of deity. Had their courage even been proof against these impressions of terror, they could have made but a faint resistance. The cannonading, the pikes, and a discipline to which they were strangers must have easily dispersed them. They fled on all sides. To punish them for their rebellion, as it was called, every Indian above fourteen years of age was subjected to a tribute in gold or in cotton, according to the district in which he lived.

This regulation, which required assiduous labour, appeared the greatest of evils to a people who were not used to constant employment. The desire of getting rid of their oppressors, therefore, became their ruling passion. As they entertained no further hope of being able to expel them by force, the idea occurred to them, in 1496, of reducing them by famine. In this view they sowed no more maize, they pulled up the cassava roots that were already planted, and fled for refuge to the mountains.

[1496–1498 ▲.D.] Desperate resolutions are seldom attended with success; accordingly, that which the Indians had taken proved fatal to them. The products of rude and uncultivated nature were not sufficient for their support, as they had inconsiderately expected they would be; and their asylum, however difficult of access, was not a security from the pursuit of their incensed tyrants, who, during this total privation of local resources, accidentally received some provisions from the mother country. The rage of the Spaniards was excited to such a degree that they trained up dogs to hunt and devour these unhappy men; and it has even been said that some of the Castilians had made a vow to massacre twelve Indians every day in honour of the twelve apostles. Before this event the island was reckoned to contain a million of inhabitants. A third part of this considerable population perished in these campaigns, by fatigue, hunger, and the sword.

Scarcely had the remnant of these unfortunate people, who had escaped so many disasters, returned to their habitations, where calamities of another kind were preparing for them, when divisions arose among their persecutors. The removal of the capital of the colony from the north to the south, from Isabella to Santo Domingo, might possibly furnish a pretence for some complaints; but the dissensions had their chief origin in indulged passions, raised to an uncommon degree of fermentation beneath a burning sky, and not sufficiently restrained by an authority imperfectly established. When the business was to dethrone a cacique, to plunder a district, or extermine a village, the commands of the brother of Columbus, or of his representative, were readily obeyed. After sharing the booty, insubordination followed; and mutual jealousies and animosities became their sole occupation. The Spaniards at length took up arms against each other, and war was openly declared.

During the course of these divisions, Columbus was in Spain, whither he had returned in June, 1496, in order to answer the accusations that were incessantly renewed against him. The recital of the great actions he had performed and the exposition of the useful plans he meant to carry into execution easily regained him the confidence of Isabella. Ferdinand himself began to be a little reconciled to the idea of distant voyages. The plan of a regular form of government was traced, which was first to be tried at San Domingo, and afterwards adopted, with such alterations as experience might show to be necessary, in the several settlements, which in process of time might be founded in the other hemisphere. Men skilled in the working of mines were carefully selected, and the government agreed to pay and maintain them for several years.

On the 30th of May, 1498, Columbus sailed on his third voyage, with six ships. He touched at the Canaries, and despatched from thence three of his squadron direct to Hispaniola. With the other three he steered toward the Cape Verd islands. Taking his departure from this point he held a southwesterly course till he came within five degrees of the equator, where the heat of the air burst the wine-pipes and water-casks, and caused the crews to fear that the ships would be burned. After eight days of calm weather and intolerable heat, the air became a little cooler, and on the 31st of July they discovered land, which proved to be the island of Trinidad, at the mouth of the Orinoco. Proceeding along the shore, he obtained a sight of some of the natives, who proved very hostile, and discharged showers of arrows at the ships. They had shields, the first defensive armour the Spaniards had seen in the New World. Columbus sailed through the gulf lying between Trinidad and the mouth of the Orinoco, struck with amazement at the moun

[1499-1500 A.D.]

tainous billows which that great stream rolls into the ocean. On the coast of Paria they saw more of the natives, and held friendly intercourse with them. They offered the Spaniards provisions and a sort of wine. Considerable gold was discovered, and the natives directed them to a pearl fishery. From this coast they steered to Hispaniola. This was the voyage in which the Spaniards first saw the main land of America. The continent of North America had been discovered in June of the preceding year by John Cabot.

The third visit of Columbus succeeded no better than the preceding in securing good order and prosperity in the colony. The form of government projected in Spain had not the desired effect-that of establishing a peaceable community. The people thought differently from their sovereigns. Time, which brings on reflection when the first transports of enthusiasm are passed, had abated the desire, originally so ardent, of going to the New World. Its gold was no longer an object of irresistible temptation. On the contrary, the livid complexions of the Spaniards who returned home; the accounts of the insalubrity of the climate; of the numbers who had lost their lives, and the hardships they had undergone from the scarcity of provisions; an unwillingness to be under the command of a foreigner, the severity of whose discipline was generally censured; and perhaps the jealousy that was entertained of his growing reputation; all these reasons contributed to produce an insuperable prejudice against Santo Domingo in the subjects of the crown of Castile, the only Spaniards who, till the year 1593, were allowed to embark for that island.

The malefactors who accompanied Columbus, in conjunction with the Plunderers that infested Santo Domingo, formed one of the most unnatural kinds of society that had ever appeared upon the globe. Their mutual coalition enabled them to set all authority at defiance; and the impossibility of subduing them, made it necessary to resort to negotiation. Many attempts were made in vain. At length, in 1499, it was proposed that, to the lands which every Spaniard received, a certain number of islanders should be annexed, whose time and labour should be devoted to masters destitute alike of humanity and prudence. This act of weakness on the part of the government restored apparent tranquillity to the colony, but without gaining for Columbus the affection of those who profited by it. The complaints made against him grew more loud and violent, and ere long proved effectual.

This extraordinary man purchased upon very hard terms the fame which his genius and industry had procured him. His life exhibited a perpetual series of brilliant successes and deep misfortunes. He was continually exposed to the cabals, calumnies, and ingratitude of individuals; and obliged at the same time to submit to the caprices of a haughty and turbulent court, which by turns rewarded or punished-now mortified him by the most humiliating disgrace, and now restored him to its confidence.

The prejudice entertained by the Spanish ministry against the author of the greatest discovery the world had yet seen, grew to such a pitch, that an arbitrator was sent to the colonies to decide between Columbus and his soldiers. Bobadilla, the most ambitious, self-interested, unjust, and violent man that had yet visited the New World, arrived at Santo Domingo in 1500; he deprived the admiral of his property, his honours and his command, and sent him to Spain in irons. Surprise and indignation were everywhere excited by this act of atrocious ingratitude; and Ferdinand and Isabella, overwhelmed with shame by the expression of the public feelings, ordered the fetters of Columbus to be immediately taken off. They also recalled, with real or feigned resentment, the wretch Bobadilla, who had so infamously abused his

H. W.- VOL. XXII. 20

[1502 A.D.] authority. But to their disgrace it must be added that this was all the reparation made to Columbus for so atrocious an insult.

To crown the ingratitude of the Spanish court, they constantly resisted the petitions and applications of Columbus to be reinstated in his office. The reason alleged for this unkingly breach of faith was the great value and importance of the discoveries of Columbus, which would render the reward too magnificent! After a fruitless attendance at court for two years, he gave up his solicitations, and requested merely to be sent upon a fourth voyage. Ferdinand and Isabella, eager to get rid of a man whose presence was a reproach to them, granted his request with alacrity. Four small vessels were provided for him; and the discoverer of the western world, broken down by age, fatigues and mortification, set sail once more from Cadiz on May 9, 1502. His design was to proceed west, beyond the newly discovered continent, and to circumnavigate the globe. On reaching Hispaniola he found a fleet of eighteen ships ready to depart for Spain. Columbus was refused admission into the harbour of Santo Domingo, although his vessel was unseaworthy. His knowledge of these regions enabled him to perceive signs of an approaching hurricane. Although the governor, Ovando, had refused him a shelter in the harbour, Columbus warned him of the approaching danger; but his warning was disregarded; the fleet put to sea: and the ensuing night they were assailed by a furious hurricane, and the whole fleet, except three ships, went to the bottom. In this wreck perished the malignant Bobadilla, together with the greater part of the men who had been most active in persecuting Columbus and oppressing the Indians. The treasure lost in the ships surpassed the value of two hundred thousand dollars.

Columbus, by his prudent precautions, escaped the danger, and departed for the continent. He proceeded along the coast from the eastern point of Honduras to the isthmus of Darien, searching in vain for a passage to the South Sea. Attracted by the appearance of gold, he attempted to form a settlement at the river Belem, in Veragua; but the natives, a more hardy and warlike race than the islanders, killed many of the settlers and drove the remnant away. This unexpected repulse was followed by a long train of disasters. Storms, hurricanes, terrible thunder and lightning, and all the calamities that can befall the explorers of an unknown sea, kept Columbus in a continual state of anxiety and suffering. At last he was shipwrecked on the coast of Jamaica. No settlement had been made here, and Columbus despatched a few of his men in Indian canoes to Hispaniola for relief. The insolent Ovando, from a mean jealousy of the great discoverer, delayed to grant him any assistance. Columbus remained in Jamaica, perpetually harassed by the mutinous conduct of his men. The natives, tired of the long stay of the Spaniards in their island, intercepted their supplies of provisions. Columbus, however, intimidated them by an artifice. An eclipse was at hand: he assembled the chief Indians, and informed them that the Great Spirit was angry at their behaviour toward their visitors, and on that night the moon would be turned blood-red. They listened with incredulity, but when the moon began to change her hue they were all struck with terror. They loaded themselves with provisions, and brought them to Columbus, entreating him to intercede with the Deity in their behalf. From that time their superstitious apprehensions kept them in implicit obedience to the Spaniards.

After about a year's detention on the island, three vessels came to their relief, and the crews passed over to Hispaniola, where the once arrogant Ovando received his distinguished visitor with fawning sycophancy, and

« ElőzőTovább »