CHAPTER XXXIII
IT did not end the war. For a fortnight we thought that it had doneso. Then came loud tidings. Caonabo's wife, Anacaona, had put on thelioness. With her was Caonabo's brother Manicoatex and her own brotherBehechio, cacique of Xaragua. There was a new confederacy, Gwarionexagain was with it. Only Guacanagari remained. Don Alonso marched, andthe Adelantado marched.
At dawn one morning, four sails. We all poured forth to watch themgrow bigger and yet bigger. Four ships from Cadiz, Antonio de Torrescommanding, and with him colonists of the right kind, mechanics andhusbandmen.
Many proposals, much of order, came with Torres. The Admiral hadgracious letters from the Queen, letters somewhat cooler from KingFerdinand, a dry, dry letter from Fonseca. Moreover Torres brought ageneral letter to all colonists in Hispaniola. The moral of which was,Trust and Obey the Viceroy of the Indies, the Admiral of the Ocean-Sea!
"Excellent good!" said Luis Torres. "Don Pedro Margarite and theApostolic Vicar had not reached Cadiz when Don Antonio sailed!"
The Admiral talked with me that night. Gout again crippled him. He layhelpless, now and then in much pain. "I should go home with Antonio deTorres, but I cannot!"
"You are not very fit to go."
"I do not mean my body. My will could drag that on ship. But I cannotleave Hispaniola while goes on formal war. But see you, Doctor, what agreat thing their Majesties plan for, and what courtesy and respect theyshow me! See how the Queen writes!"
I knew that it was balm and wine to him, how she wrote. The matter inquestion was nothing more or less than an amicable great meeting betweenthe two sovereigns and the King of Portugal, the wisest subjects of bothattending. A line was to be drawn from top to bottom of Ocean-Sea, andPortugal might discover to the east of it, and Spain to the west! TheHoly Father would confirm, and so the mighty spoil be justly divided.Every great geographer should come into counsel. The greatest of themall, the Discoverer, surely so! The Queen urged the Admiral's presence.
But he could not go. Sense of duty to his Viceroyship held him as withchains. Then Bartholomew? But Bartholomew was greatly needed for thewar. He sent Don Diego, a gentle, able man who longed for a cloister anda few hundred monks, fatherly, admirably, to rule.
Antonio de Torres stayed few weeks in Hispaniola. The Viceroy andAdmiral would have his letter in the royal hands. Torres took that andtook gold and strange plants, and also six hundred Indian captives to besold for slaves.
War went on in Hispaniola, but not for long. We had horses andbloodhounds and men in armor, trained in the long Moorish strife. Therewas a battle in the Vega that ended as it must end.
Behechio and Anacaona fled to the high mountains. Manicoatex andGwarionex sued for peace. It was granted, but a great tribute wasimposed. Now all Hayti must gather gold for Spain.
Now began, a little to-day and a little to-morrow, long woe for Hayti!It was the general way of our Age. But our Age sinned.
The year wheeled to October. Juan Aguado came with four caravels toIsabella, and he brought letters of a different tenor from thosethat Torres brought. We heard in them the voice of Margarite and theApostolic Vicar.
But now the Admiral was well again, the Indians defeated, Hispaniolabasking in what we blithely called peace. Aguado came to examine andinterrogate. He had his letters. "Cavaliers, esquires and others, youare to give Don Juan Aguado faith and credit. He is with you on our partto look into--"
Aguado looked with a hostile eye toward Viceroy and Adelantado. Wherewas a malcontent he came secretly if might be, if not openly, to Aguado.Whoever had a grudge came; whoever thought he had true injury. Every onewho disliked Italians, fire-new nobles, sea captains dubbed Admirals andViceroys came. Every one who had been restrained from greed, lust andviolence came. Those who held an honest doubt as to some one policy, oract, questioned, found their mere doubt become in Aguado's mind damningcertainty. And so many good Spaniards dead in war, and so many ofpestilence, and such thinness, melancholy, poverty in Isabella! Andwhere was the gold? And was this rich Asia of the spices, the elephants,the beautiful thin cloths and the jewels? The friends of ChristopherusColumbus had their say also, but suddenly there arose all the enemies.
"When he sails home, I will sail with him!" said the Admiral, "My nameis hurt, the truth is wounded!"
In the third week of Aguado's visit, arose out of far ocean and rushedupon us one of those immense tempests that we call here "hurricane".Not a few had we seen since 1492, but none so great, so terrible as thisone. Eight ships rode in the harbor and six were sunk. Aguado's fourcaravels and two others. Many seamen drowned; some got ashore half-dead.
"How will I get away? I must to Spain!" cried Aguado. The Admiral said,"There is the _Nina_."
The _Nina_ must be made seaworthy, and in the end we built a smallership still which we called the _Santa Cruz_. Aguado waited, fretting.Christopherus Columbus kept toward him a great, calm courtesy.
It was at this moment that Don Bartholomew found, through Miguel Diaz,the mines of Hayna, that was a great river in a very rich country. TheAdelantado brought to Isabella ore in baskets. Pablo Belvis, our newessayer, pronounced it true and most rich. Brought in smaller measureswere golden grains, knobs as large as filberts, golden collars and armrings from the Indians of Bonao where flowed the Hayna.
"Ophir!" said the Admiral. "Mayhap it is Ophir! Then have we passedsomewhere the Gulf of Persia and Trapoban!"
With that gold he sailed, he and Aguado and two small crowded ships.With him he carried Caonabo. It was early March in 1496.
But Juan Lepe stayed in Hispaniola, greatly commended by the Admiral tothe Adelantado. A man might attach himself to the younger as well asthe elder of these brothers. Don Bartholomew had great qualities. Buthe hardly dreamed as did Christopherus Columbus. I loved the latter mostfor that--for his dreams.
Days and days and days! We sought for gold in the Hayna country andfound a fair amount. And all Hayti now, each Indian cacique and hiscountry, must gather for us. _Must_, not may. We built the fortress ofSan Cristoval, and at last, to be nearer the gold than was Isabella, theAdelantado founded the city of San Domingo, at the mouth of the Ozema,in the Xaragua country. Spaniards in Hispaniola now lived, so many inIsabella, so many in San Domingo, and garrisons in the forts of St.Thomas, Concepcion, and San Cristoval.
Weeks--months. July, and Pedro Alonzo Nino with three caravels filledwith strong new men and with provisions. How always we welcomed theseincoming ships and the throng they brought that stood and listened andthought at first, after the sea tossing and crowding, that they werecome to heaven! And Pedro Nino had left Cadiz in June, three days afterthe arrival there of the _Nina_ and the _Santa Cruz_. "June! They hadthen a long voyage!"--"Long enough! They looked like skeletons! If theAdmiral's hair could get whiter, it was whiter."
He had letters for the Adelantado from the great brother, having waitedin Cadiz while they were written.
Juan Lepe had likewise a letter. "I was in the _Nina_, Don Juan deAguado in the Santa Cruz. We met at once head winds that continued. Atfirst I made east, but at last of necessity somewhat to the southward.We saw Marigalante again and Guadaloupe, and making for this last,anchored and went ashore, for the great relief of all, and for waterand provision. Here we met Amazons, wearing plumes and handling mightilytheir bows and arrows. After them came a host of men. Our cannon andarquebuses put them to flight but three of our sailors were wounded.Certain prisoners we took and bound upon the ships. In the village thatwe entered we found honey and wax. They are Cannibals; they eat men.After four days we set sail, but met again tempest and head winds,checking us so that for weeks we but crept and crawled over ocean. Atlast we must give small doles of bread and water. There grew famine,sickness and misery. I and all may endure these when great things areabout. But they blame me. O God, who wills that the Unknown become theKnown, I betake myself to Thy court! Famine increased. There are those,but I will not name them, who cried that we must kill the Indians withus and eat them that we might live.
I stood and said, 'Let the Cannibalsstand with the Cannibals!' But no man budged.--I will not weary thee,best doctor, with our woes! At last St. Vincent rose out of sea, andwe presently came to Cadiz. Many died upon the voyage, and among themCaonabo. In the harbor here we find Pedro Alonzo Nino who will bear myletters.
"In Cadiz I discover both friends and not friends. The sovereigns are atBurgos, and thither I travel. My fortunes are at ebb, yet will the floodcome again!"
Time passed. Hispaniola heard again from him and again. When shipsput forth from Cadiz--and now ships passed with sufficient regularitybetween Spain in Europe and Spanish Land across Ocean-Sea--he wrote bythem. He believed in the letter. God only knows how many he wrote in hislifetime! It was ease to him to tell out, to dream visibly, to argue hiscase on fair paper. And those who came in the ships had stories abouthim-El Almirante!
Were his fortunes at ebb, or were they still in flood? There mightbe more views here than one. Some put in that he was done for, othersclamored that he was yet mounting.
But he wrote to the Adelantado and also to Juan Lepe that he sat betweengood and bad at court. The Queen was ever the great head of the good.We knew from him that Pedro Margarite and Father Buil and Juan Aguadoaltered nothing there. But elsewhere now there were warm winds, and nowbiting cold. And warm and cold, he could not get the winds that shouldfill his sails. He begged for ships--eight he named--that he might nowfind for the sovereigns main Asia--not touch here and there upon Cubashore, but find the Deep All. But forever promised, he was forever keptfrom the ships! True it was that the sovereigns and the world besidewere busy folk! There were Royal Marriages and Naples to be reconqueredfor its king.
We heard of confirmations of all his dignities and his tithes of wealth.He was offered to be made Marquess, but that he would not have. "TheAdmiral" was better title. But he sued for and obtained entail upon hissons and their sons forever of his nobility and his great Estate in theWest. "Thus," he wrote, "have I made your fortunes, sons and brothers!But truly not without you and your love and strengthening could I havemade aught! A brother indeed for my left hand and my right hand, and tobeckon me on, two dear sons!"