The Enchanted Islands - 4

The Enchanted Islands - 4


Columbus was now, as he thought, hot upon the track of the Great Khan himself; and on
the first of November he sent boats ashore and told the sailors to get information from the
houses; but the inhabitants fled shyly into the woods. Having once postulated the
existence of the Great Khan in this immediate territory Columbus, as his habit was, found
that everything fitted with the theory; and he actually took the flight of the natives,
although it had occurred on a dozen other occasions, as a proof that they mistook his
bands of men for marauding expeditions despatched by the great monarch himself. He
therefore recalled them, and sent a boat ashore with an Indian interpreter who, standing in
the boat at the edge of the water, called upon the natives to draw near, and harangued
them. He assured them of the peaceable intentions of the great Admiral, and that he had
nothing whatever to do with the Great Khan; which cannot very greatly have thrilled the
Cubans, who knew no more about the Great Khan than they did about Columbus. The
interpreter then swam ashore and was well received; so well, that in the evening some
sixteen canoes came off to the ships bringing cotton yarn and spears for traffic.
Columbus, with great astuteness, forbade any trading in cotton or indeed in anything at
all except gold, hoping by this means to make the natives produce their treasures; and he
would no doubt have been successful if the natives had possessed any gold, but as the
poor wretches had nothing but the naked skins they stood up in, and the few spears and
pots and rolls of cotton that they were offering, the Admiral's astuteness was for once
thrown away. There was one man, however, with a silver ring in his nose, who was
understood to say that the king lived four days' journey in the interior, and that
messengers had been sent to him to tell him of the arrival of the strange ships; which
messengers would doubtless soon return bringing merchants with them to trade with the
ships. If this native was lying he showed great ingenuity in inventing the kind of story
that his questioners wanted; but it is more likely that his utterances were interpreted by
Columbus in the light of his own ardent beliefs. At any rate it was decided to send at once
a couple of envoys to this great city, and not to wait for the arrival of the merchants. Two
Spaniards, Rodrigo de Jerez and Luis de Torres, the interpreter to the expedition—who
had so far found little use for his Hebrew and Chaldean—were chosen; and with them
were sent two Indians, one from San Salvador and the other a local native who went as
guide. Red caps and beads and hawks' bells were duly provided, and a message for the
king was given to them telling him that Columbus was waiting with letters and presents
from Spanish sovereigns, which he was to deliver personally. After the envoys had
departed, Columbus, whose ships were anchored in a large basin of deep water with a
clean and steep beach, decided to take the opportunity of having the vessels careened.
Their hulls were covered with shell and weed; the caulking, which had been dishonestly
done at Palos, had also to be attended to; so the ships were beached and hove down one at
a time—an unnecessary precaution, as it turned out, for there was no sign of treachery on
the part of the natives. While the men were making fires to heat their tar they noticed that
the burning wood sent forth a heavy odour which was like mastic; and the Admiral, now
always busy with optimistic calculations, reckoned that there was enough in that vicinity
to furnish a thousand quintals every year. While the work on the ships was going forward
he employed himself in his usual way, going ashore, examining the trees and vegetables
and fruits, and holding such communication as he was able with the natives. He was up
every morning at dawn, at one time directing the work of his men, at another going
ashore after some birds that he had seen; and as dawn comes early in those islands his
day was probably a long one, and it is likely that he was in bed soon after dark. On the
day that he went shooting, Martin Alonso Pinzon was waiting for him on his return; this
time not to make any difficulties or independent proposals, but to show him two pieces of
cinnamon that one of his men had got from an Indian who was carrying a quantity of it.
"Why did the man not get it all from him?" says greedy Columbus. "Because of the
prohibition of the Admiral's that no one should do any trading," says Martin Alonso, and
conceives himself to have scored; for truly these two men do not love one another. The
boatswain of the Pinta, adds Martin Alonso, has found whole trees of it. "The Admiral
then went there and found that it was not cinnamon." The Admiral was omnipotent; if he
had said that it was manna they would have had to make it so, and as he chose to say that
it was not cinnamon, we must take his word for it, as Martin Alonso certainly had to do;
so that it was the Admiral who scored this time. Columbus, however, now on the track of
spices, showed some cinnamon and pepper to the natives; and the obliging creatures "said
by signs that there was a great deal of it towards the south-east." Columbus then showed
them some gold and pearls; and "certain old men" replied that in a place they called Bo-
No there was any amount of gold; the people wore it in their ears and on their arms and
legs, and there were pearls also, and large ships and merchandise—all to the south-east.
Finding this information, which was probably entirely untrue and merely a polite effort to
do what was expected of them, well received, the natives added that "a long distance
from there, there were men with one eye, and other men with dogs' snouts who ate men,
and that when they caught a man they beheaded him and drank his blood" . . . Soon after
this the Admiral went on board again and began to write up his Journal, solemnly
entering all these facts in it. It is the most childish nonsense; but after all, how interesting
and credible it must have been! To live thus smelling the most heavenly perfumes,
breathing the most balmy air, viewing the most lovely scenes, and to be always hot upon
the track of gold and pearls and spices and wealth and dog-nosed, blood-drinking
monstrosities—what an adventure, what a vivid piece of living!
After a few days—on Tuesday, November 6th—the two men who had been sent inland to
the great and rich city came back again with their report. Alas for visions of the Great
Khan! The city turned out to be a village of fifty houses with twenty people in each
house. The envoys had been received with great solemnity; and all the men "as well as
the women" came to see them, and lodged them in a fine house. The chief people in the
village came and kissed their hands and feet, hailing them as visitors from the skies, and
seating them in two chairs, while they sat round on the floor. The native interpreter,
doubtless according to instructions, then told them "how the Christians lived and how
they were good people"; and I would give a great deal to have heard that brief address.
Afterwards the men went out and the women came in, also kissing the hands and feet of
the visitors, and "trying them to see if they were of flesh and of bone like themselves."
The results were evidently so satisfactory that the strangers were implored to remain at
least five days. The real business of the expedition was then broached. Had they any gold
or pearls? Had they any cinnamon or spices? Answer, as usual: "No, but they thought
there was a great deal of it to the south-east." The interest of the visitors then evaporated,
and they set out for the coast again; but they found that at least five hundred men and
women wanted to come with them, since they believed that they were returning to
heaven. On their journey back the two Spaniards noticed many people smoking, as the
Admiral himself had done a few days before; and this is the first known discovery of
tobacco by Europeans.