difafters to which navigation is expofed. Furious hurricanes, with violent ftorms of thunder and lightning, threatened his leaky veffels with deftruction; while his difcontended crew, exhaufted with fatigue and deftitute of provifions, was unwilling or unable to execute his commands. One of his fhips perifhed; he was obliged to abandon another, as unfit for fervice; and with the two which remained, he quitted that part of the continent which in his anguish he named the Coaft of Vexation r), and bore away for Hifpaniola. New diftreffes awaited him in this voyage. He was driven back by a violent tempeft from the coaft of Cuba, his fhips fell foul of one another, and were fo much shattered by the fhock, that with the utmost difficulty they reached Jamaica (June 24.), where he was obliged to run them aground, to prevent them from finking. The measure of his calamities feemed now to be full. He was caft afhore upon an ifland at a confiderable diftance from the only fettlement of the Spaniards in America. His fhips were ruined beyond the poffibility of being repaired. To convey an account of his fituation to Hifpaniola, appeared impracticable; and without this it was vain to expect relief. His genius, fertile in refources, and moft vigorous in thofe perilous extremities when feeble minds abandon themselves to defpair, difcovered the only expedient which af r) La Cofta de los Contraftes. forded any profpect of deliverance. He had recourfe to the hofpitable kindness of the natives, who confidering the Spaniards as beings of a fuperior nature, were eager on every occafion, to minifter to their wants. From them he obtained two of their canoes, each formed out of the trunk of a fingle tree, hollowed with fire, and fo misfhapen and aukward as hardly to merit the name of boats. In the, which were fit only for creeping along the coaft, or croffing from one fide of a bay to another, Mendez, a Spaniard, and Fiefchi, a Genoefe, two gentlemen particularly attached to Columbus, gallantly offered to fet out for Hifpaniola, upon a voyage of above thirty leagues s). This they accomplished in ten days, after furmounting incredible dangers, and enduring fuch fatigue, that feveral of the Indians who accompanied them funk under it, and died. The attention paid to them by the governor of Hifpaniola was neither fuch as their courage merited, nor the diftrefs of the perfons from whom they came, required. Ovando, from a mean jealoufy of Columbus, was afraid of allowing him to fet his foot in the ifland under his government. This ungenerous paffion hardened his heart againft every tender fentiment, which reflection upon the fervices and misfortunes of that great man, or compaffion for his own fellow-citizens involved in the fame calamities, muft have excited. s) Oviedo, lib. iii. c. 9. Mendez and Fieschi Ipent eight months in foliciting relief for their commander and affociates,, without any prospect of obtaining it. His diftrefs and fufferings there. During this period, various paffions agitated the mind of Columbus and his companions in adverfity. At first the expectation of speedy deliverance, from the fuccefs of Mendez and Fiefchi's voyage, cheered the fpirits of the most defponding. After fome time the more timorous began to fufpect that they had mifcarried in their daring attempt. (1504) At length, all concluded they had perifhed. The ray of hope which had broke in upon them, made their condition ap pear now more difmal. Despair, heightened by difappointment, fettled in every breast. Their laft refource had failed, and nothing remained but to end their miferable days among naked favages, far from their country and their friends. The feamen, in a transport of rage, rose in open mutiny, threatened the life of Columbus, whom they reproached as the author of all their calamities, feized ten canoes, which he had pur chafed from the Indians, and defpifing his remonftrances and entreaties, made off with them to a diftant part of the ifland. At the fame time, the natives murmured at the long refidence of the Spaniards in their country. As their induftry was not greater than that of their neighbours in Hifpaniola, like them, they found the burden burden of fupporting fo many ftrangers to be altogether intolerable. They began to bring in provifions with reluctance, they furnished them with a fparing hand, and threatened to withdraw thofe fupplies altogether. Such a refolution muft quickly have been fatal to the Spaniards. Their fafety depended upon the good will of the Indians; and unless they could revive the admiration and reverence with which that fimple people had at firft beheld them, deftruction was unavoidable. Though the licentious proceedings of the mutineers had, in a great measure, effaced those impreffions which had been fo favourable to the Spaniards, the ingenuity of Columbus fuggefted a happy artifice, that not only reftored but heightened the high opinion which the Indians had originally entertained of them. By his fill in aftronomy, he knew that there was fhortly to be a total eclipfe of the moon. He affembled all the principal perfons of the district around him on the day before it happened, and, after reproaching them for their ficklenefs in withdrawing their affection and affiftance from men whom they had lately revered, he told them, that the Spaniards were fervants of the Great Spirit who dwells in heaven, who made and governs the world; that he, offended at their refufing to fupport men who were the objects of his peculiar favour, was preparing to punifh this crime with exemplary feverity, and that very ROBERTSON Tom. II. Р night the moon fhould withhold her light, and appear of a bloody hue, as a fign of the divine wrath, and an emblem of the vengeance ready to fall upon them. To this marvellous predic tion fome of them liftened with the careless indifference peculiar to the people of America: others, with the credulous aftonifhment natural to barbarians. But when the moon began gradually to be darkened, and at length appeared of a red colour, all were ftruck with terror. They ran with confternation to their houfes, and returning inftantly to Columbus loaded with provifions, threw them at his feet, conjuring him to intercede with the Great Spirit to avert the deftruction with which they were threatened. Columbus, feeming to be moved by their entreaties, promifed to comply with their defire. The eclipfe went off, the moon recovered its fplendour, and from that day the Spaniards were not only furnished profufely with provifions, but the natives, with fuperftitious attention, avoided every thing that could give them offence. t) A cruel addition to them. During thofe tranfactions, the mutineers had made repeated attempts to pass over to Hifpaniola in the canoes which they had seized. But, from their own mifconduct, or the violence of t) Life of Columbus, c. 103. Herrera, dec. I. lib. vi. c. c. 14. C |