The Earthly Paradise - 5

The Earthly Paradise - 5

Indeed Columbus was seeing yellow at this point in his career. The word "gold" is

scattered throughout every page of his journal; he can understand nothing that the natives

say to him except that there is a great quantity of gold somewhere about. He is

surrounded by natives pressing presents upon him, protesting their homage, and assuring

him (so he thinks) that there are any amount of gold mines; and no wonder that the

yellow light blinds his eyes and confounds his senses, and that sometimes, even when the

sun has gone down and the natives have retired to their villages and he sits alone in the

seclusion of his cabin, the glittering motes still dance before his eyes and he becomes

mad, maudlin, ecstatic . . . . The light flickers in the lamp as the ship swings a little on the

quiet tide and a night breeze steals through the cabin door; the sound of voices ashore

sounds dimly across the water; the brain of the Admiral, overfilled with wonders and

promises and hopes, sends its message to the trembling hand that holds the pen, and the

incoherent words stream out on the ink. "May our Lord in His mercy direct me until I

find this gold, I say this Mine, because I have many people here who say that they know

it."

On Christmas Eve a serious misfortune befell Columbus. What with looking for gold, and

trying to understand the people who talked about it, and looking after his ships, and

writing up his journal, he had had practically no sleep for two days and a night; and at

eleven o'clock on the 24th of December, the night being fine and his ship sailing along

the coast with a light land breeze, he decided to lie down to get some sleep. There were

no difficulties in navigation to be feared, because the ship's boats had been rowed the day

before a distance of about ten miles ahead on the course which they were then steering

and had seen that there was open water all the way. The wind fell calm; and the man at

the helm, having nothing to do, and feeling sleepy, called a ship's boy to him, gave him

the helm, and went off himself to lie down. This of course was against all rules; but as the

Admiral was in his cabin and there was no one to tell them otherwise the watch on deck

thought it a very good opportunity to rest. Suddenly the boy felt the rudder catch upon

something, saw the ship swinging, and immediately afterwards heard the sound of tide

ripples. He cried out; and in a moment Columbus, who was sleeping the light sleep of an

anxious shipmaster, came tumbling up to see what was the matter. The current, which

flows in that place at a speed of about two knots, had carried the ship on to a sand bank,

but she touched so quietly that it was hardly felt. Close on the heels of, Columbus came

the master of the ship and the delinquent watch; and the Admiral immediately ordered

them to launch the ship's boat—and lay out an anchor astern so that they could warp her

off. The wretches lowered the boat, but instead of getting the anchor on board rowed off

in the direction of the Nina, which was lying a mile and a half to windward. As soon as

Columbus saw what they were doing he ran to the side and, seeing that the tide was

failing and that the ship had swung round across the bank, ordered the remainder of the

crew to cut away the mainmast and throw the deck hamper overboard, in order to lighten

the ship. This took some time; the tide was falling, and the ship beginning to heel over on

her beam; and by the time it was done the Admiral saw that it would be of no use, for the

ship's seams had opened and she was filling.

At this point the miserable crew in the ship's boat came back, the loyal people on the

Nina having refused to receive them and sent them back to the assistance of the Admiral.

But it was now too late to do anything to save the ship; and as he did not know but that

she might break up, Columbus decided to tranship the people to the Nina, who had by

this time sent her own boat. The whole company boarded the Nina, on which the Admiral

beat about miserably till morning in the vicinity of his doomed ship. Then he sent Diego

de Arana, the brother of Beatriz and a trusty friend, ashore in a boat to beg the help of the

King; and Guacanagari immediately sent his people with large canoes to unload the

wrecked ship, which was done with great efficiency and despatch, and the whole of her

cargo and fittings stored on shore under a guard. And so farewell to the Santa Maria,

whose bones were thenceforward to bleach upon the shores of Hayti, or incongruously

adorn the dwellings of the natives. She may have been "a bad sailer and unfit for

discovery"; but no seaman looks without emotion upon the wreck of a ship whose stem

has cut the waters of home, which has carried him safely over thousands of uncharted

miles, and which has for so long been his shelter and sanctuary.

At sunrise the kind-hearted cacique came down to the Nina, where Columbus had taken

up his quarters, and with tears in his eyes begged the Admiral not to grieve at his losses,

for that he, the cacique, would give him everything that he possessed; that he had already

given two large houses to the Spaniards from the Santa Maria who had been obliged to

encamp on shore, and that he would provide more accommodation and help if necessary.

In fact, the day which had been ushered in so disastrously turned into a very happy one;

and before it was over Columbus had decided that, as he could not take the whole of his

company home on the Nina, he would establish a settlement on shore so that the men

who were left behind could collect gold and store it until more ships could be sent from

Spain. The natives came buzzing round anxious to barter whatever they had for hawks'

bells, which apparently were the most popular of the toys that had been brought for

bartering; "they shouted and showed the pieces of gold, saying chuq, chuq, for hawks'

bells, as they are in a likely state to become crazy for them." The cacique was delighted

to see that the Admiral was pleased with the gold that was brought to him, and he cheered

him up by telling him that there was any amount in Cibao, which Columbus of course

took for Cipango. The cacique entertained Columbus to a repast on shore, at which the

monarch wore a shirt and a pair of gloves that Columbus had given him; "and he rejoiced

more over the gloves than anything that had been given him." Columbus was pleased

with his clean and leisurely method of eating, and with his dainty rubbing of his hands

with herbs after he had eaten. After the repast Columbus gave a little demonstration of

bow-and-arrow shooting and the firing of lombards and muskets, all of which astonished

and impressed the natives.