Degradation - 6

Degradation   - 6

"The news of the gold that I said I would give is, that on the day of the Nativity, while I

was much tormented, being harassed by wicked Christians and by Indians, and when I

was on the point of giving up everything, and if possible escaping from life, our Lord

miraculously comforted me and said, 'Fear not violence, I will provide for all things: the

seven years of the term of the gold have not elapsed, and in that and in everything else I

will afford thee a remedy.'

"On that day I learned that there were eighty leagues of land with mines at every point

thereof. The opinion now is that it is all one. Some have collected a hundred and twenty

castellanos in one day, and others ninety, and even the number of two hundred and fifty

has been reached. From fifty to seventy, and in many more cases from fifteen to fifty, is

considered a good day's work, and many carry it on. The usual quantity is from six to

twelve, and any one obtaining less than this is not satisfied. It seems to me that these

mines are like others, and do not yield equally every day. The mines are new, and so are

the workers: it is the opinion of everybody that even if all Castile were to go there, every

individual, however inexpert he might be, would not obtain less than one or two

castellanos daily, and now it is only commencing. It is true that they keep Indians, but the

business is in the hands of the Christians. Behold what discernment Bobadilla had, when

he gave up everything for nothing, and four millions of tenths, without any reason or

even being requested, and without first notifying it to their Highnesses. And this is not

the only loss.

"I know that my errors have not been committed with the intention of doing evil, and I

believe that their Highnesses regard the matter just as I state it: and I know and see that

they deal mercifully even with those who maliciously act to their disservice. I believe and

consider it very certain that their clemency will be both greater and more abundant

towards me, for I fell therein through ignorance and the force of circumstances, as they

will know fully hereafter; and I indeed am their creature, and they will look upon my

services, and will acknowledge day by day that they are much profited. They will place

everything in the balance, even as Holy Scripture tells us good and evil will be at the day

of judgment.

"If, however, they command that another person do judge me, which I cannot believe,

and that it be by inquisition in the Indies, I very humbly beseech them to send thither two

conscientious and honourable persons at my expense, who I believe will easily, now that

gold is discovered, find five marks in four hours. In either case it is needful for them to

provide for this matter.

"The Commander on his arrival at San Domingo took up his abode in my house, and just

as he found it so he appropriated everything to himself. Well and good; perhaps he was in

want of it. A pirate never acted thus towards a merchant. About my papers I have a

greater grievance, for he has so completely deprived me of them that I have never been

able to obtain a single one from him; and those that would have been most useful in my

exculpation are precisely those which he has kept most concealed. Behold the just and

honest inquisitor! Whatever he may have done, they tell me that there has been an end to

justice, except in an arbitrary form. God, our Lord, is present with His strength and

wisdom, as of old, and always punishes in the end, especially ingratitude and injuries."

We must keep in mind the circumstances in which this letter was written if we are to

judge it and the writer wisely. It is a sad example of querulous complaint, in which

everything but the writer's personal point of view is ignored. No one indeed is more

terrible in this world than the Man with a Grievance. How rarely will human nature in

such circumstances retire into the stronghold of silence! Columbus is asking for pity; but

as we read his letter we incline to pity him on grounds quite different from those which

he represented. He complains that the people he was sent to govern have waged war

against him as against a Moor; he complains of Ojeda and of Vincenti Yanez Pinzon; of

Adrian de Moxeca, and of every other person whom it was his business to govern and

hold in restraint. He complains of the colonists—the very people, some of them, whom

he himself took and impressed from the gaols and purlieus of Cadiz; and then he mingles

pious talk about Saint Peter and Daniel in the den of lions with notes on the current price

of little girls and big lumps of gold like the eggs of geese, hens, and pullets. He

complains that he is judged as a man would be judged who had been sent out to govern a

ready-made colony, and represents instead that he went out to conquer a numerous and

warlike people "whose custom and religion are very contrary to ours, and who lived in

rocks and mountains"; forgetting that when it suited him for different purposes he

described the natives as so peaceable and unwarlike that a thousand of them would not

stand against one Christian, and that in any case he was sent out to create a constitution

and not merely to administer one. Very sore indeed is Christopher as he reveals himself

in this letter, appealing now to his correspondent, now to the King and Queen, now to

that God who is always on the side of the complainant. "God our Lord is present with His

strength and wisdom, as of old, and always punishes in the end, especially ingratitude and

injuries." Not boastfulness and weakness, let us hope, or our poor Admiral will come off

badly.