The Third Voyage - 4

The Third Voyage - 4

But in the Vega Real, where a chapel had been built by the priests of the neighbouring

settlement who were beginning to make converts, trouble had arisen in consequence of an

outrage on the wife of the cacique Guarionex. The chapel was raided, the shrine

destroyed, and the sacred vessels carried off. The Spaniards seized a number of Indians

whom they suspected of having had a hand in the desecration, and burned them at the

stake in the most approved manner of the Inquisition—a hideous punishment that fanned

the remaining embers of the native spirit into flame, and produced a hostile combination

of Guarionex and several other caciques, whose rebellion it took the Adelantado some

trouble and display of arms to quench.

But the worst news of all was the treacherous revolt of Francisco Roldan, a Spaniard who

had once been a servant of the Admiral's, and who had been raised by him to the office of

judge in the island—an able creature, but, like too many recipients of Christopher's

favour, a treacherous rascal at bottom. As soon as the Admiral's back was turned Roldan

had begun to make mischief, stirring up the discontent that was never far below the

surface of life in the colony, and getting together a large band of rebellious ruffians. He

had a plan to murder Bartholomew Columbus and place himself at the head of the colony,

but this fell through. Then, in Bartholomew's absence, he had a passage with James

Columbus, who had now returned to the island and had resumed his. official duties at

Isabella. Bartholomew, who was at another part of the coast collecting tribute, had sent a

caravel laden with cotton to Isabella, and well-meaning James had her drawn up on the

beach. Roldan took the opportunity to represent this innocent action as a sign of the

intolerable autocracy of the Columbus family, who did not even wish a vessel to be in a

condition to sail for Spain with news of their misdeeds. Insolent Roldan formally asks

James to send the caravel to Spain with supplies; poor James refuses and, perhaps being

at bottom afraid of Roldan and his insolences, despatches him to the Vega Real with a

force to bring to order some caciques who had been giving trouble. Possibly to his

surprise, although not to ours, Roldan departs with alacrity at the head of seventy armed

men. Honest, zealous James, no doubt; but also, we begin to fear, stupid James.

The Vega Real was the most attractive part of the colony, and the scene of infinite

idleness and debauchery in the early days of the Spanish settlement. As Margarite and

other mutineers had acted, so did Roldan and his soldiers now act, making sallies against

several of the chain of forts that stretched across the island, and even upon Isabella itself;

and returning to the Vega to the enjoyment of primitive wild pleasures. Roldan and

Bartholomew Columbus stalked each other about the island with armed forces for several

months, Roldan besieging Bartholomew in the fortress at the Vega, which he had

occupied in Roldan's absence, and trying to starve him out there. The arrival in February

1498 of the two ships which had been sent out from Spain in advance, and which brought

also the news of the Admiral's undamaged favour at Court, and of the royal confirmation

of Bartholomew's title, produced for the moment a good moral effect; Roldan went and

sulked in the mountains, refusing to have any parley or communication with the

Adelantado, declining indeed to treat with any one until the Admiral himself should

return. In the meantime his influence with the natives was strong enough to produce a

native revolt, which Bartholomew had only just succeeded in suppressing when

Christopher arrived on August 30th.

The Admiral was not a little distressed to find that the three ships from which he had

parted company at Ferro had not yet arrived. His own voyage ought to have taken far

longer than theirs; they had now been nine weeks at sea, and there was nothing to account

for their long delay. When at last they did appear, however they brought with them only a

new complication. They had lost their way among the islands and had been searching

about for Espanola, finally making a landfall there on the coast of Xaragua, the southwestern

province of the island, where Roldan and his followers were established. Roldan

had received them and, concealing the fact of his treachery, procured a large store of

provisions from them, his followers being meanwhile busy among the crews of the ships

inciting them to mutiny and telling them of the oppression of the Admiral's rule and the

joys of a lawless life. The gaol-birds were nothing loth; after eight weeks at sea a spell

ashore in this pleasant land, with all kinds of indulgences which did not come within the

ordinary regimen of convicts and sailors, greatly appealing to them. The result was that

more than half of the crews mutinied and joined Roldan, and the captains were obliged to

put to sea with their small loyal remnant. Carvajal remained behind in order to try to

persuade Roldan to give himself up; but Roldan had no such idea, and Carvajal had to

make his way by land to San Domingo, where he made his report to the Admiral. Roldan

has in fact delivered a kind of ultimatum. He will surrender to no one but the Admiral,

and that only on condition that he gets a free pardon. If negotiations are opened, Roldan

will treat with no one but Carvajal. The Admiral, whose grip of the situation is getting

weaker and weaker, finds himself in a difficulty. His loyal army is only some seventy

strong, while Roldan has, of disloyal settlers, gaol-birds, and sailors, much more than

that. The Admiral, since he cannot reduce his enemy's force by capturing them, seeks to

do it by bribing them; and the greatest bribe that he can think of to offer to these

malcontents is that any who like may have a free passage home in the five caravels which

are now waiting to return to Spain. To such a pass have things come in the paradise of

Espanola! But the rabble finds life pleasant enough in Xaragua, where they are busy with

indescribable pleasures; and for the moment there is no great response to this invitation to

be gone. Columbus therefore despatches his ships, with such rabble of colonists, gaolbirds,

and mariners as have already had their fill both of pain and pleasure, and writes his

usual letter to the Sovereigns—half full of the glories of the new discoveries he has made,

the other half setting forth the evil doings of Roldan, and begging that he may be

summoned to Spain for trial there. Incidentally, also, he requests a further licence for two

years for the capture and despatch of slaves to Spain. So the vessels sail back on October

18, 1498, and the Admiral turns wearily to the task of disentangling the web of difficulty

that has woven itself about him.

Carvajal and Ballester—another loyal captain—were sent with a letter to Roldan urging

him to come to terms, and Carvajal and Ballester added their own honest persuasions. But

Roldan was firm; he wished to be quit of the Admiral and his rule, and to live

independently in the island; and of his followers, although some here and there showed

signs of submission, the greater number were so much in love with anarchy that they

could not be counted upon. For two months negotiations of a sort were continued, Roldan

even presenting himself under a guarantee of safety at San Domingo, where he had a

fruitless conference with the Admiral; where also he had an opportunity of observing

what a sorry state affairs in the capital were in, and what a mess Columbus was making

of it all. Roldan, being a simple man, though a rascal, had only to remain firm in order to

get his way against a mind like the Admiral's, and get his way he ultimately did. The

Admiral made terms of a kind most humiliating to him, and utterly subversive of his

influence and authority. The mutineers were not only to receive a pardon but a certificate

(good Heavens!) of good conduct. Caravels were to be sent to convey them to Spain; and

they were to be permitted to carry with them all the slaves that they had collected and all

the native young women whom they had ravished from their homes.

Columbus signs this document on the 21st of November, and promises that the ships shall

be ready in fifty days; and then, at his wits' end, and hearing of irregularities in the

interior of the island, sets off with Bartholomew to inspect the posts and restore them to

order. In his absence the see-saw, in due obedience to the laws that govern all see-saws,

gives a lurch to the other side, and things go all wrong again in San Domingo. The

preparations for the despatch of the caravels are neglected as soon as his back is turned;

not fifty days, but nearly one hundred days elapse before they are ready to sail from San

Domingo to Xaragua. Even then they are delayed by storms and head-winds; and when

they do arrive Roldan and his company will not embark in them. The agreement has been

broken; a new one must be made. Columbus, returning to San Domingo after long and

harassing struggles on the other end of the see-saw, gets news of this deadlock, and at the

same time has news from Fonseca in Spain of a far from agreeable character. His

complaints against the people under him have been received by the Sovereigns and will

be duly considered, but their Majesties have not time at the moment to go into them. That

is the gist of it, and very cold cheer it is for the Admiral, balancing himself on this

turbulent see-saw with anxious eyes turned to Spain for encouragement and approval.

In the depression that followed the receipt of this letter he was no match for Roldan. He

even himself took a caravel and sailed towards Xaragua, where he was met by Roldan,

who boarded his ship and made his new proposals. Their impudence is astounding; and

when we consider that the Admiral had in theory absolute powers in the island, the fact

that such proposals could be made, not to say accepted, shows how far out of relation

were his actual with his nominal powers. Roldan proposed that he should be allowed to

give a number of his friends a free passage to Spain; that to all who should remain free

grants of land should be given; and (a free pardon and certificate of good conduct

contenting him no longer) that a proclamation should be made throughout the island

admitting that all the charges of disloyalty and mutiny which had been brought against

him and his followers were without foundation; and, finally, that he should be restored to

his office of Alcalde Mayor or chief magistrate.