The Voyage To Cuba - 1

Desperate Remedies
The Voyage To Cuba - 1
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
AND THE NEW WORLD OF HIS DISCOVERY

The sight of the greater part of their fleet disappearing in the direction of home threw
back the unstable Spanish colony into doubt and despondency. The brief encouragement
afforded by Ojeda's report soon died away, and the actual discomforts of life in Isabella
were more important than visionary luxuries that seemed to recede into the distance with
the vanishing ships. The food supply was the cause of much discomfort; the jobbery and
dishonesty which seem inseparable from the fitting out of a large expedition had stored
the ships with bad wine and imperfectly cured provisions; and these combined with the
unhealthy climate to produce a good deal of sickness. The feeling against Columbus,
never far below the Spanish surface, began to express itself definitely in treacherous
consultations and plots; and these were fomented by Bernal Diaz, the comptroller of the
colony, who had access to Columbus's papers and had seen the letter sent by him to
Spain. Columbus was at this time prostrated by an attack of fever, and Diaz took the
opportunity to work the growing discontent up to the point of action. He told the colonists
that Columbus had painted their condition in far too favourable terms; that he was
deceiving them as well as the Sovereigns; and a plot was hatched to seize the ships that
remained and sail for home, leaving Columbus behind to enjoy the riches that he had
falsely boasted about. They were ready to take alarm at anything, and to believe anything
one way or the other; and as they had believed Ojeda when he came back with his report
of riches, now they believed Cado, the assayer, who said that even such gold as had been
found was of a very poor and worthless quality. The mutiny developed fast; and a table of
charges against Columbus, which was to be produced in Spain as a justification for it, had
actually been drawn up when the Admiral, recovering from his illness, discovered what
was on foot. He dealt promptly and firmly with it in his quarterdeck manner, which was
always far more effective than his viceregal manner. Diaz was imprisoned and lodged in
chains on board one of the ships, to be sent to Spain for trial; and the other ringleaders
were punished also according to their deserts. The guns and ammunition were all stored
together on one ship under a safe guard, and the mutiny was stamped out. But the
Spaniards did not love Columbus any the better for it; did not any the more easily forgive
him for being in command of them and for being a foreigner.
But it would never do for the colony to stagnate in Isabella, and Columbus decided to
make a serious attempt, not merely to discover the gold of Cibao, but to get it. He
therefore organised a military expedition of about 400 men, including artificers, miners,
and carriers, with the little cavalry force that had been brought out from Spain. Every one
who had armour wore it, flags and banners were carried, drums and trumpets were
sounded; the horses were decked out in rich caparisons, and as glittering and formidable a
show was made as possible. Leaving his brother James in command of the settlement,
Columbus set out on the 12th of March to the interior of the island. Through the forest
and up the mountainside a road was cut by pioneers from among the aristocratic
adventurers who had come with the party; which road, the first made in the New World,
was called El Puerto de los Hidalgos. The formidable, glittering cavalcade inspired the
natives with terror and amazement; they had never seen horses before, and when one of
the soldiers dismounted it seemed to them as though some terrifying two-headed, sixlimbed
beast had come asunder. What with their fright of the horses and their desire to
possess the trinkets that were carried they were very friendly and hospitable, and supplied
the expedition with plenty of food. At last, after passing mountain ranges that made their
hearts faint, and rich valleys that made them hopeful again, the explorers came to the
mountains of Cibao, and passing over the first range found themselves in a little valley at
the foot of the hills where a river wound round a fertile plain and there was ample
accommodation for an encampment. There were the usual signs of gold, and Columbus
saw in the brightly coloured stones of the river-bed evidence of unbounded wealth in
precious stones. At last he had come to the place! He who had doubted so much, and
whose faith had wavered, had now been led to a place where he could touch and handle
the gold and jewels of his desire; and he therefore called the place Saint Thomas. He built
a fort here, leaving a garrison of fifty-six men under the command of Pedro Margarite to
collect gold from the natives, and himself returned to Isabella, which he reached at the
end of March.
Enforced absence from the thing he has organised is a great test of efficiency in any man.
The world is full of men who can do things themselves; but those who can organise from
the industry of their men a machine which will steadily perform the work whether the
organiser is absent or present are rare indeed. Columbus was one of the first class. His
own power and personality generally gave him some kind of mastery over any
circumstances in which he was immediately concerned; but let him be absent for a little
time, and his organisation went to pieces. No one was better than he at conducting a oneman
concern; and his conduct of the first voyage, so long as he had his company under
his immediate command, was a model of efficiency. But when the material under his
command began to grow and to be divided into groups his life became a succession of
ups and downs. While he was settling and disciplining one group mutiny and disorder
would attack the other; and when he went to attend to them, the first one immediately fell
into confusion again. He dealt with the discontent in Isabella, organising the better
disposed part of it in productive labour, and himself marching the malcontents into
something like discipline and order, leaving them at Saint Thomas, as we have seen,
usefully collecting gold. But while he was away the people at Isabella had got themselves
into trouble again, and when he arrived there on the morning of March 29th he found the
town in a deplorable condition. The lake beside which the city had been built, and which
seemed so attractive and healthy a spot, turned out to be nothing better than a fever trap.
Drained from the malarial marshes, its sickly exhalations soon produced an epidemic that
incapacitated more than half the colony and interrupted the building operations. The time
of those who were well was entirely occupied with the care of those who were sick, and
all productive work was at a standstill. The reeking virgin soil had produced crops in an
incredibly short time, and the sowings of January were ready for reaping in the beginning
of April. But there was no one to reap them, and the further cultivation of the ground had
necessarily been neglected.