The Earthly Paradise -1

The Earthly Paradise - 1

When Columbus weighed anchor on the 12th of November he took with him six captive
Indians. It was his intention to go in search of the island of Babeque, which the Indians
alleged lay about thirty leagues to the east-south-east, and where, they said, the people
gathered gold out of the sand with candles at night, and afterwards made bars of it with a
hammer. They told him this by signs; and we have only one more instance of the
Admiral's facility in interpreting signs in favour of his own beliefs. It is only a few days
later that in the same Journal he says, "The people of these lands do not understand me,
nor do I nor any other person I have with me understand them; and these Indians I am
taking with me, many times understand things contrary to what they are." It was a fault at
any rate not exclusively possessed by the Indians, who were doubtless made the subject
of many philological experiments on the part of the interpreter; all that they seemed to
have learned at this time were certain religious gestures, such as making the Sign of the
Cross, which they did continually, greatly to the edification of the crew.
In order to keep these six natives in a good temper Columbus kidnapped "seven women,
large and small, and three children," in order, he alleged, that the men might conduct
themselves better in Spain because of having their "wives" with them; although whether
these assorted women were indeed the wives of the kidnapped natives must at the best be
a doubtful matter. The three children, fortunately, had their father and mother with them;
but that was only because the father, having seen his wife and children kidnapped, came
and offered to go with them of his own accord. This taking of the women raises a
question which must be in the mind of any one who studies this extraordinary voyage—
the question of the treatment of native women by the Spaniards. Columbus is entirely
silent on the subject; but taking into account the nature of the Spanish rabble that formed
his company, and his own views as to the right which he had to possess the persons and
goods of the native inhabitants, I am afraid that there can be very little doubt that in this
matter there is a good reason, for his silence. So far as Columbus himself was concerned,
it is probable that he was innocent enough; he was not a sensualist by nature, and he was
far too much interested and absorbed in the principal objects of his expedition, and had
too great a sense of his own personal dignity, to have indulged in excesses that would,
thus sanctioned by him, have produced a very disastrous effect on the somewhat rickety
discipline of his crew. He was too wise a master, however, to forbid anything that it was
not in his power to prevent; and it is probable that he shut his eyes to much that, if he did
not tolerate it, he at any rate regarded as a matter of no very great importance. His crew
had by this time learned to know their commander well enough not to commit under his
eyes offences for which he would have been sure to punish them.
For two days they ran along the coast with a fair wind; but on the 14th a head wind and
heavy sea drove them into the shelter of a deep harbour called by Columbus Puerto del
Principe, which is the modern Tanamo. The number of islands off this part of the coast of
Cuba confirmed Columbus in his profound geographical error; he took them to be "those
innumerable islands which in the maps of the world are placed at the end of the east." He
erected a great wooden cross on an eminence here, as he always did when he took
possession of a new place, and made some boat excursions among the islands in the
harbour. On the 17th of November two of the six youths whom he had taken on board the
week before swam ashore and escaped. When he started again on his voyage he was
greatly inconvenienced by the wind, which veered about between the north and south of
east, and was generally a foul wind for him. There is some difference of opinion as to
what point of the wind the ships of Columbus's time would sail on; but there is no doubt
that they were extremely unhandy in anything approaching a head wind, and that they
were practically no good at all at beating to windward. The shape of their hulls, the
ungainly erections ahead and astern, and their comparatively light hold on the water,
would cause them to drift to leeward faster than they could work to windward. In this
head wind, therefore, Columbus found that he was making very little headway, although
he stood out for long distances to the northward. On Wednesday, November 21st,
occurred a most disagreeable incident, which might easily have resulted in the Admiral's
never reaching Spain alive. Some time in the afternoon he noticed the Pinta standing
away ahead of him in a direction which was not the course which he was steering; and he
signalled her to close up with him. No answer, however, was made to his signal, which he
repeated, but to which he failed to attract any response. He was standing south at the
time, the wind being well in the north-east; and Martin Alonso Pinzon, whose caravel
pointed into the wind much better than the unhandy Santa Maria, was standing to the
east. When evening fell he was still in sight, at a distance of sixteen miles. Columbus was
really concerned, and fired lombards and flew more signals of invitation; but there was
no reply. In the evening he shortened sail and burned a torch all night, "because it
appeared that Martin Alonso was returning to me; and the night was very clear, and there
was a nice little breeze by which to come to me if he wished." But he did not wish, and
he did not come.
Martin Alonso has in fact shown himself at last in his true colours. He has got the fastest
ship, he has got a picked company of his own men from Palos; he has got an Indian on
board, moreover, who has guaranteed to take him straight to where the gold is; and he has
a very agreeable plan of going and getting it, and returning to Spain with the first news
and the first wealth. It is open mutiny, and as such cannot but be a matter of serious regret
and trouble to the Admiral, who sits writing up his Journal by the swinging lamp in his
little cabin. To that friend and confidant he pours out his troubles and his long list of
grievances against Martin Alonso; adding, "He has done and said many other things to
me." Up on deck the torch is burning to light the wanderer back again, if only he will
come; and there is "a nice little breeze" by which to come if he wishes; but Martin
Alonso has wishes quite other than that.
The Pinta was out of sight the next morning, and the little Nina was all that the Admiral
had to rely upon for convoy. They were now near the east end of the north coast of Cuba,
and they stood in to a harbour which the Admiral called Santa Catalina, and which is now