Notable Voyagers Part 7

Knowing that he should be pardoned, he returned and reported the discovery to Columbus, who, highly elated, fully believed that the mines were those of the ancient Ophir.

The _Santa Cruz_, the new caravel, being finished and the _Nina_ repaired, Columbus appointed his brother, Don Bartholomew, as Adelantado, to govern the island, and going on board, set sail on the 12th of March, 1496. Aguado went on board the other vessel, and between the two were two hundred and twenty-five pa.s.sengers, all those who wished to return to the old country, as well as thirty Indians, with the cacique Caonabo, one of his brothers, and a nephew. Even captivity could not crush the spirit of the haughty chief till he fell ill, and died before the termination of the voyage.

After meeting with baffling winds for a long time, on the 6th of April Columbus found himself still in the neighbourhood of the Carib Islands, his crew sickly and his provisions diminis.h.i.+ng. He bore away, therefore, in search of supplies, and after touching at Maregalante, made sail for Guadaloupe. Here a boat going ash.o.r.e to obtain wood and water, a large number of females, decorated with tufts of feathers and armed with bows and arrows, as if to defend their sh.o.r.es, were seen issuing from the forest. The natives on board having explained to these Amazonian dames that the object of the Spaniards was barter, they referred them to their husbands, who, they said, were in a different part of the island.

As the boats pulled along the beach numbers of natives approached, shouting and yelling, and brandis.h.i.+ng their weapons, and discharging flights of arrows.

A few shots from the firearms of the Spaniards drove them off. The boat when landing met with no further opposition, and, contrary to the injunctions of the Admiral, they plundered and destroyed the native huts. Honey and wax were found in the houses, and hatchets made of hard and heavy stone. One of the seamen declared that he found a human arm roasting, but this statement was probably made to excuse himself and his companions for the wanton mischief they had committed.

While some of the men were obtaining wood and water, Columbus dispatched a strongly-armed party of forty into the interior. Here they encountered a number of women of large and powerful form, their long hair flowing loose upon their shoulders, and their heads decorated with plumes of various colours. Ten women and three boys were brought back.

Among the former was a woman of great strength and of proud spirit, who endeavoured to escape, but being pursued by a Spaniard, was overtaken while attempting to strangle him, and was captured.

After they were brought on board Columbus ordered them to be restored to the island, but the chieftainess, whose heart had been touched by the misfortunes of Caonabo, insisted on remaining to comfort him, and was thus carried captive to Spain.

Guadaloupe was left on the 20th of April, but a whole month was spent beating against contrary winds and currents, so that water and provisions began to fail, and the people were put upon short allowance.

So reduced were they at last that some of the Spaniards proposed, as an expedient, that they should kill and eat their Indian prisoners. Others suggested that they should throw them into the sea.

Columbus had to exert all his authority to prevent this atrocious act.

He urged them to wait with patience, and a.s.sured them that in a short time they would see Cape Saint Vincent.

Many scoffed, declaring that they were on a different part of the coast, but on the 10th he ordered that sail should be taken in at night, and on the next morning they were in sight of the very land he had predicted.

After a dreary voyage of three months, on the 11th of June the vessels anch.o.r.ed in the Bay of Cadiz. He found three caravels on the point of sailing, to carry provisions to the colony. Nearly a year had pa.s.sed without relief of any kind having been sent out, as four vessels which had sailed in January had been lost. By this squadron he wrote to his brother, the Adelantado, urging him to bring the island into a peaceful and productive state, and to send to Spain all Indians who should injure any of the colonists.

Columbus was honourably treated by the sovereigns, although the mind of Ferdinand was evidently poisoned by the representations of his enemies.

Notwithstanding the cruel opposition of his foes, the great navigator, refusing to take the repose his health so much required, bent on prosecuting his discoveries, employed all his energies to obtain forthwith the command of another expedition.

CHAPTER SIX.

THIRD VOYAGE OF COLUMBUS--A.D. 1498.

Columbus, after many delays, fits out another squadron, and sails on his third voyage, 30th May, 1498--Touches at Gomara--Retakes a prize to a French privateer--Off the Cape de Verdes--Sends three of his s.h.i.+ps to Hispaniola, and steers south-west with the remainder--Long becalmed-- Steers west and sights Trinidad--Sees mainland of South America--Natives come off--Alarmed by music--A bore threatens to destroy the s.h.i.+ps-- Enters the Serpent's Mouth--Sails up the Gulf of Paria--Mistakes the promontory for an island--Anchors at the mouth of the river--Natives come off--Pearls seen among them--Large quant.i.ties procured--Pa.s.ses through the Dragon's Mouth--Natives seen fis.h.i.+ng for pearls--Three pounds weight obtained--His eyesight failing, steers for Hispaniola-- Makes the land fifty leagues more to the west than he had expected-- Reaches Isabella--Disastrous state of the settlement--Bobadilla sent out to supersede Columbus--Summoned to Isabella--Columbus and his brothers sent in chains to Spain--Arrival--Reaction in his favour--Honourably received at Court--Ovando sent out to supersede Bobadilla--The belief of Columbus that a pa.s.sage into the Indian Ocean was to be found--Obtains authority to fit out another fleet.

It was not without numerous wearying delays that Columbus at length succeeded in getting another squadron fitted out to prosecute his discoveries. He at length obtained six vessels, with which he set sail on the 30th of May, 1498. Having heard that a French squadron was cruising off Cape Saint Vincent, he first stood to the south-west, touching at the islands of Porto Santo and Madeira, and then continued his course to the Canary Islands. As he approached Gomara on the 19th of June, he saw at anchor a French privateer with two Spanish prizes.

The former put to sea in all haste, followed by her prizes, one of which had only four men on board, besides six Spanish prisoners. Though he sent three of his vessels in pursuit, the privateer and one of the prizes escaped, but the six Spaniards on board the other, rising on their captors, she was retaken and brought back to the port.

Leaving Gomara, Columbus dispatched three of his s.h.i.+ps to carry supplies to Hispaniola, and with the three remaining vessels prosecuted his voyage towards the Cape de Verde Islands. Though suffering from sickness, he continued to keep his reckoning and make his observations with his usual minuteness.

Touching at the Cape de Verdes, he was disappointed at not obtaining the goats, sheep, and cattle he had expected. The weather was sultry and depressing, and he and his crew suffered greatly. Steering south-west for about one hundred and twenty leagues, he reached the fifth degree of north lat.i.tude, the region known among seamen by the name of the "calm lat.i.tudes." Suddenly the wind fell, a dead calm commenced, which lasted for eight days. The air was like a furnace, the tar melted, the seams of the s.h.i.+ps yawned, the salt meat became putrid, the wheat was parched, the hoops round some of the casks of wine and water shrank, while others burst, letting out their contents.

To get out of this lat.i.tude he steered to the south-west, hoping to find a milder temperature farther on. In this he was not disappointed. At length a cool breeze filled the sails of the vessels, and they again made good progress.

Columbus intended to have stood first to the south and then westward, but the heat had made the vessels leak so excessively that it was necessary to find a harbour as soon as possible. The provisions were also spoiled, and the water nearly exhausted. On the 31st of July but one cask of water remained in each s.h.i.+p, when about midday a seaman at the masthead hailed that he saw the summits of three mountains rising above the horizon.

Columbus had before determined to give the name of the Trinity to the first land he should behold, and was struck by the appearance of these three mountains united in one. He therefore called the island La Trinidad. Steering to its eastern extremity, he saw a rock resembling a galley under sail off a headland, which, in consequence, he called Punta de la Galera. No safe anchorage appearing, he coasted westward in search of a harbour and water. Instead of a sterile land, he saw the country covered with groves of palm-trees, cultivated in many places, and enlivened by hamlets and scattered habitations, while streams came rus.h.i.+ng down the hill-sides.

At length anchoring, abundance of water was obtained from a limpid brook, and traces of animals were seen, which must have been those of deer, though supposed to be those of goats.

When coasting the island, he now for the first time saw, stretching away to the south, that mighty continent of which he had so long been in search, it being the land near the many mouths of the Oronoco; supposing it, however, to be an island, he called it La Isla Santa. On the 2nd of August he cast anchor near the south-west portion of Trinidad. As the s.h.i.+ps approached this place, a large canoe, with five and twenty Indians on board, put off from the sh.o.r.e.

He in vain tried to induce the savages to come on board, by offering them looking-gla.s.ses, gla.s.s, beads of polished metal, and glittering trinkets. They remained gazing in mute wonder at the s.h.i.+ps, but kept their paddles ready to make off at the least attempt to approach them.

They were young, well formed, and naked, excepting fillets of cotton bound round their heads, and coloured cloths about their loins. Besides their bows and arrows, they carried bucklers,--an article of armour now first seen among the inhabitants of the New World.

Believing that they might be affected by music, Columbus ordered the band to strike up; but the Indians, mistaking the sounds as a sign of hostility, seized their bows and let fly a shower of arrows. The discharge of a couple of crossbows, however, put them to flight. They afterwards approached the other s.h.i.+ps, but had conceived an especial fear of that of the Admiral.

Columbus, supposing himself to be in the seventh degree of lat.i.tude, though actually in the tenth, expected to find the inhabitants similar to the natives of Africa, under the same parallel,--black, with crisp hair,--and was astonished at finding these natives even fairer than those met with farther north.

The s.h.i.+ps brought up at Point Arenal, the nearest to the mainland, between which and the island Columbus observed, night and day, a current flowing at a tremendous speed, boiling and raging to such a degree that he thought it was crossed by a reef of rocks. From its dangerous appearance he gave to it the name of Boca del Sierpe--the Serpent's Mouth. He feared that the current from the east would prevent his return, while his s.h.i.+ps might be lost on the supposed rocks, should he attempt a pa.s.sage.

That night, while kept awake by his illness, he heard a terrible roaring from the south, and beheld the sea heaped up and covered with foam, like a huge watery ridge the height of the s.h.i.+ps, rolling towards them. As this furious surge approached, rendered more terrible in appearance by the obscurity of night, he trembled for the safety of his vessels. His own s.h.i.+p was lifted up to such a height that he feared she would be overturned, while another was torn from her anchorage. The crews expected to be swallowed up, but the surge pa.s.sed on and gradually subsided.

Early in the morning he sent the boats to sound the water at the Serpent's Mouth, and to his great joy several fathoms were found; the currents and tides setting both ways, either to enter or return. A favourable breeze springing up, he entered the tranquil expanse between Trinidad and the mainland of Paria, and, to his great surprise, he here found the water fresh.

He continued northward towards a mountain at the north-west point of the island, and here beheld two lofty capes, one projecting from the island of Trinidad, the other at the end of the long promontory of Paria, which, supposing it to be an island, he named Isla de Gracia. Between these capes was another channel beset with rocks, among which the current forced its way with roaring turbulence, to which he gave the name of Boca del Dragon.

Not wis.h.i.+ng to encounter it, he steered along the inner side of the promontory, round which, fancying that it was an island, he expected to get, and then to be able to strike northward for Hispaniola.

The country appeared to be cultivated in some places, and in others covered with fruit-trees and plants, and abounding with monkeys. He was, however, greatly astonished at finding the water still fresh, and that it became more and more so the farther he proceeded. It was that season, however, when the rivers which empty themselves into the Gulf of Paria are swollen by rains. He was surprised also at the calmness of the sea, not being aware that the only two entrances were by the Serpent's and Dragon's Mouths into this large expanse of water.

For some time no inhabitants were met with. At length the s.h.i.+ps brought up at the mouth of the river, and immediately a canoe with three Indians came off to the caravel anch.o.r.ed nearest the sh.o.r.e, when the captain, springing in, upset her, and the people, as they were swimming, were secured. Being brought to the Admiral, they were presented with beads, hawks' bells, and sugar. The report they gave in consequence, on returning on sh.o.r.e, induced many other natives to come off. They were tall, finely formed, and graceful in their movements, being armed with bows and arrows and targets. The men wore cotton cloths of various colours about their heads and loins, but the women were dest.i.tute of clothing. They brought maize and other eatables, with beverages, some white, made from maize, others green, expressed from various fruits.

They judged of everything by the sense of smell. As they came near they smelt the boat, then smelt the people, as they did all the articles offered them. Although setting little value on the beads, they were delighted with the hawks' bells, and still more so with anything of bra.s.s. Taking some of the people as guides, he proceeded west for eight leagues, to a point which he called the Needle. So beautiful was the country, that he gave it the name of The Garden.

Here many natives came off, and invited the Admiral on sh.o.r.e in the name of their King. Many wore collars and burnished plates of that inferior kind of gold, called by the Indians _guanin_, and they pointed to a land in the west, from whence they said it came; but the cupidity of the Spaniards was excited by strings of pearls round the arms of some of them. These, they said, were procured at the sea-coast on the northern side of Paria, and they showed the mother-of-pearl sh.e.l.ls from which they were taken.

To secure specimens to be sent to Spain, Columbus dispatched some boats to that part of the sh.o.r.e. Numbers of the natives came down, and treating the Spaniards as beings of a superior order, regaled them with bread and various fruits of excellent flavour. They had among them tame parrots, one of light green with a yellow neck, and the tips of the wings of a bright red, others of a vivid scarlet, except some azure feathers in the wing. These they gave to the Spaniards, who, however, cared for nothing but pearls, many necklaces and bracelets of which were given by the Indian women in exchange for hawks' bells or articles of bra.s.s.

The Spaniards returned on board highly delighted at the way they had been treated, while the quant.i.ty of pearls seen among the natives raised the sanguine antic.i.p.ations of Columbus, who was anxious to send the finest specimens to the sovereigns.

Still believing the peninsula of Paria to be an island, he sailed on westward until compelled, by finding the water more shallow as he advanced, to anchor, when he sent a caravel to explore. She returned the following day with a report that at the end of the gulf there was an opening of two leagues, which led into an inner gulf, into which flowed a quant.i.ty of fresh water by four openings. It was in reality the mouth of the large river now called the Paria. To the inner gulf Columbus gave the name of the Gulf of Pearls.

Finding no pa.s.sage to the westward, the s.h.i.+ps proceeded in an opposite direction for the Boca del Dragon. On the 13th of August they anch.o.r.ed in a fine harbour, to which Columbus gave the name of Puerto de Gatos.

Here also were seen mangroves growing in the water with oysters clinging to the branches, their mouths open, as the Spaniards supposed, to receive the dew which was afterwards thought to be transformed into pearls. That they were thus formed was believed until comparatively late years.

The pa.s.sage through which he was about to pa.s.s is extremely dangerous after the rainy season, and the water which rushes through it foams and roars as if breaking on rocks. Scarcely had the s.h.i.+ps entered than the wind died away, and s.h.i.+pwreck appeared imminent, but they were at length carried through by the current of fresh water into the open sea.

Columbus now stood to the westward, running along the northern coast of Paria, still supposing it to be an island, intending to visit the Gulf of Pearls. To the north-east he saw the two islands of Tobago and Granada, and on the 15th those of Margarita and Cubagua, afterwards famed for their pearl fis.h.i.+ng.

On approaching the latter, a number of Indians were seen fis.h.i.+ng for pearls. A boat being sent to communicate with them, a seaman offered a broken piece of gaily-painted porcelain to a woman who had round her neck a string of pearls, which she readily gave in exchange.

On this the Admiral sent people on sh.o.r.e, who with beads and hawks'

bells soon procured three pounds weight of pearls, some of very large size.

The coast still trending to the westward, and rising into lofty ranges of mountains, Columbus began to suspect that he was off the mainland of India; but his eyesight failing, he was reluctantly compelled to steer for Hispaniola to seek for needed rest. On making land, after a sail of five days, he found that he was fifty leagues to the westward of his destination, having been driven across by the strong steady current which sets in from the east, and a.s.sists to give an impetus to the Gulf Stream.

Sending on sh.o.r.e for an Indian messenger to take a letter to his brother the Adelantado, a canoe came off with several Indians, one of whom carried a Spanish crossbow. As this was not an article of traffic, the Admiral feared that fresh troubles had arisen, and that the weapon had fallen into the Indian's hands by the death of a Spaniard.