An Interlude - 2

An Interlude - 2

This proposal was too tempting to be refused; unlike the expeditions of Columbus, which

were all expenditure and no revenue, it promised a chance of revenue without any

expenditure at all. The Paria coast, having been discovered subsequent to the agreement

made with Columbus, was considered by Fonseca to be open to private enterprise; and he

therefore granted Ojeda a licence to go and explore it. Among those who went with him

were Amerigo Vespucci and Columbus's old pilot, Juan de la Cosa, as well as some of

the sailors who had been with the Admiral on the coast of Paria and had returned in the

caravels which had brought his account of it back to Spain. Ojeda sailed on May 20,

1499; made a landfall some hundreds of miles to the eastward of the Orinoco, coasted

thence as far as the island of Trinidad, and sailed along the northern coast of the

peninsula of Paria until he came to a country where the natives built their hots on piles in

the water, and to which he gave the name of Venezuela. It was by his accidental presence

on this voyage that Vespucci, the meat-contractor, came to give his name to America—a

curious story of international jealousies, intrigues, lawsuits, and lies which we have not

the space to deal with here. After collecting a considerable quantity of pearls Ojeda, who

was beginning to run short of provisions, turned eastward again and sought the coast of

Espanola, where we shall presently meet with him again.

And Ojeda was not the only person in Spain who was enticed by Columbus's glowing

descriptions to go and look for the pearls of Paria. There was in fact quite a reunion of

old friends of his and ours in the western ocean, though they went thither in a spirit far

different from that of ancient friendship. Pedro Alonso Nino, who had also been on the

Paria coast with Columbus, who had come home with the returning ships, and whose

patience (for he was an exceedingly practical man) had perhaps been tried by the strange

doings of the Admiral in the Gulf of Paria, decided that he as well as any one else might

go and find some pearls. Nino is a poor man, having worked hard in all his voyagings

backwards and forwards across the Atlantic; but he has a friend with money, one Luis

Guerra, who provides him with the funds necessary for fitting out a small caravel about

the size of his old ship the Nifta. Guerra, who has the money, also has a brother

Christoval; and his conditions are that Christoval shall be given the command of the

caravel. Practical Niflo does not care so long as he reaches the place where the pearls are.

He also applies to Fonseca for licence to make discoveries; and, duly receiving it, sails

from Palos in the beginning of June 1499, hot upon the track of Ojeda.

They did a little quiet discovery, principally in the domain of human nature, caroused

with the friendly natives, but attended to business all the time; with the result that in the

following April they were back in Spain with a treasure of pearls out of which, after Nifio

had been made independent for life and Guerra, Christoval, and the rest of them had their

shares, there remained a handsome sum for the Crown. An extremely practical,

businesslike voyage this; full of lessons for our poor Christopher, could he but have

known and learned them.

Yet another of our old friends profited by the Admiral's discovery. What Vincenti Yafiez

Pinzon has been doing all these years we have no record; living at Palos, perhaps, doing a

little of his ordinary coasting business, administering the estates of his brother Martin

Alonso, and, almost for a certainty, talking pretty big about who it was that really did all

the work in the discovery of the New World. Out of the obscurity of conjecture he

emerges into fact in December 1499, when he is found at Palos fitting out four caravels

for the purpose of exploring farther along the coast of the southern mainland. That he also

was after pearls is pretty certain; but on the other hand he was more of a sailor than an

adventurer, was a discoverer at heart, and had no small share of the family taste for sea

travel. He took a more southerly course than any of the others and struck the coast of

America south of the equator on January 20, 1500. He sailed north past the mouths of the

Amazon and Orinoco through the Gulf of Paria, and reached Espanola in June 1500. He

only paused there to take in provisions, and sailed to the west in search of further

discoveries; but he lost two of his caravels in a gale and had to put back to Espanola.

He sailed thence for Palos, and reached home in September 1500, having added no

inconsiderable share to the mass of new geographical knowledge that was being

accumulated. In later years he took a high place in the maritime world of Spain.

And finally, to complete the account of the chief minor discoveries of these two busy

years, we must mention Pedro Alvarez Cabral of Portugal, who was despatched in March

1, 1500 from Lisbon to verify the discoveries of Da Gama. He reached Calicut six

months later, losing on the voyage four of his caravels and most of his company. Among

the lost was Bartholomew Diaz, the first discoverer of the Cape of Good Hope, who was

on this voyage in a subordinate capacity, and whose bones were left to dissolve in the

stormy waters that beat round the Cape whose barrier he was the first to pass. The chief

event of this voyage, however, was not the reaching of Calicut nor the drowning of Diaz

(which was chiefly of importance to himself, poor soul!) but the discovery of Brazil,

which Cabral made in following the southerly course too far to the west. He landed there,

in the Bay of Porto Seguro, on May 1, 1500, and took formal possession of the land for

the Crown of Portugal, naming it Vera Cruz, or the Land of the True Cross.