The Voyage To Cuba - 4

The Voyage To Cuba - 4

Perhaps in his madness he would really have gone on and tried to reach the Golden

Chersonesus of Ptolemy, which according to Marco Polo lay just beyond, and so to steer

homeward round Ceylon and the Cape of Good Hope; in which case he would either have

been lost or would have discovered Mexico. The crews, however, would not hear of the

voyage being continued westward. The ships were leaking and the salt water was spoiling

the already doubtful provisions and he was forced to turn back. He stood to the southeast,

and reached the Isle of Pines, to which he gave the name of Evangelista, where the

water-casks were filled, and from there he tried to sail back to the east. But he found

himself surrounded by islands and banks in every direction, which made any straight

course impossible. He sailed south and east and west and north, and found himself always

back again in the middle of this charmed group of islands. He spent almost a month

trying to escape from them, and once his ship went ashore on a sandbank and was only

warped off with the greatest difficulty. On July 7th he was back again in the region of the

"Queen's Gardens," from which he stood across to the coast of Cuba.

He anchored and landed there, and being in great distress and difficulty he had a large

cross erected on the mainland, and had mass said. When the Spaniards rose from their

knees they saw an old native man observing them; and the old man came and sat down

beside Columbus and talked to him through the interpreter. He told him that he had been

in Jamaica and Espanola as well as in Cuba, and that the coming of the Spaniards had

caused great distress to the people of the islands.

He then spoke to Columbus about religion, and the gist of what he said was something

like this: "The performance of your worship seems good to me. You believe that this life

is not everything; so do we; and I know that when this life is over there are two places

reserved for me, to one of which I shall certainly go; one happy and beautiful, one

dreadful and miserable. Joy and kindness reign in the one place, which is good enough

for the best of men; and they will go there who while they have lived on the earth have

loved peace and goodness, and who have never robbed or killed or been unkind. The

other place is evil and full of shadows, and is reserved for those who disturb and hurt the

sons of men; how important it is, therefore, that one should do no evil or injury in this

world!"

Columbus replied with a brief statement of his own theological views, and added that he

had been sent to find out if there were any persons in those islands who did evil to others,

such as the Caribs or cannibals, and that if so he had come to punish them. The effect of

this ingenuous speech was heightened by a gift of hawks' bells and pieces of broken

glass; upon receiving which the good old man fell down on his knees, and said that the

Spaniards must surely have come from heaven.

A few days later the voyage to the, south-east was resumed, and some progress was made

along the coast. But contrary winds arose which made it impossible for the ships to round

Cape Cruz, and Columbus decided to employ the time of waiting in completing his

explorations in Jamaica. He therefore sailed due south until he once more sighted the

beautiful northern coast of that island, following it to the west and landing, as his custom

was, whenever he saw a good harbour or anchorage. The wind was still from the east, and

he spent a month beating to the eastward along the south coast of the island, fascinated by

its beauty, and willing to stay and explore it, but prevented by the discontent of his crews,

who were only anxious to get back to Espanola. He had friendly interviews with many of

the natives of Jamaica, and at almost the last harbour at which he touched a cacique with

his wife and family and complete retinue came off in canoes to the ship, begging

Columbus to take him and his household back to Spain.

Columbus considers this family, and thinks wistfully how well they would look in

Barcelona. Father dressed in a cap of gold and green jewels, necklace and earrings of the

same; mother decked out in similar regalia, with the addition of a small cotton apron; two

sons and five brothers dressed principally in a feather or two; two daughters mothernaked,

except that the elder, a handsome girl of eighteen, wears a jewelled girdle from

which depends a tablet as big as an ivy leaf, made of various coloured stones

embroidered on cotton. What an exhibit for one of the triumphal processions: "Native

royal family, complete"! But Columbus thinks also of the scarcity of provisions on board

his ships, and wonders how all these royalties would like to live on a pint of sour wine

and a rotten biscuit each per day. Alas! there is not sour wine and rotten biscuit enough

for his own people; it is still a long way to Espanola; and he is obliged to make polite

excuses, and to say that he will come back for his majesty another time.

It was on the 20th of August that Columbus, having the day before seen the last of the

dim blue hills of Jamaica, sighted again the long peninsula of Hayti, called by him Cape

San Miguel, but known to us as Cape Tiburon; although it was not until he was hailed by

a cacique who called out to him "Almirante, Almirante," that the seaworn mariners

realised with joy that the island must be Espanola. But they were a long way from

Isabella yet. They sailed along the south coast, meeting contrary winds, and at one point

landing nine men who were to cross the island, and try to reach Isabella by land. Week

followed week, and they made very poor progress. In the beginning of September they

were caught in a severe tempest, which separated the ships for a time, and held the

Admiral weather-bound for eight days. There was an eclipse of the moon during this

period, and he took advantage of it to make an observation for longitude, by which he

found himself to be 5 hrs. 23 min., or 80 deg. 40', west of Cadiz. In this observation there

is an error of eighteen degrees, the true longitude of the island of Saona, where the

observation was taken, being 62 deg. 20' west of Cadiz; and the error is accounted for

partly by the inaccuracy of the tables of Regiomontanus and partly by the crudity and

inexactness of the Admiral's methods. On the 24th of September they at last reached the

easternmost point of Espanola, named by Columbus San Rafael. They stood to the east a

little longer, and discovered the little island of Mona, which lies between Espanola and

Puerto Rico; and from thence shaped their course west-by-north for Isabella. And no

sooner had the course been set for home than the Admiral suddenly and completely

collapsed; was carried unconscious to his cabin; and lay there in such extremity that his

companions gave him up for lost.

It is no ordinary strain to which poor Christopher has succumbed. He has been five

months at sea, sharing with the common sailors their bad food and weary vigils, but

bearing alone on his own shoulders a weight of anxiety of which they knew nothing.

Watch has relieved watch on his ships, but there has been no one to relieve him, or to lift

the burden from his mind. The eyes of a nation are upon him, watchful and jealous eyes

that will not forgive him any failure; and to earn their approval he has taken this voyage

of five months, during which he has only been able to forget his troubles in the brief

hours of slumber. Strange uncharted seas, treacherous winds and currents, drenching

surges have all done their part in bringing him to this pass; and his body, now starved on

rotten biscuits, now glutted with unfamiliar fruits, has been preyed upon by the tortured

mind as the mind itself has been shaken and loosened by the weakness of the body. He

lies there in his cabin in a deep stupor; memory, sight, and all sensation completely gone

from him; dead but for the heart that beats on faintly, and the breath that comes and goes

through the parted lips. Nino, de la Cosa, and the others come and look at him, shake

their heads, and go away again. There is nothing to be done; perhaps they will get him

back to Isabella in time to bury him there; perhaps not.

And meanwhile they are back again in calm and safe waters, and coasting a familiar

shore; and the faithful little Nina, shaking out her wings in the sunny breezes, trips under

the guidance of unfamiliar hands towards her moorings in the Bay of Isabella. It is a sad

company that she carries; for in the cabin, deaf and blind and unconscious, there lies the

heart and guiding spirit of the New World. He does not hear the talking of the waters past

the Nina's timbers, does not hear the stamping on the deck and shortening of sail and

unstopping of cables and getting out of gear; does not hear the splash of the anchor, nor

the screams of birds that rise circling from the shore. Does not hear the greetings and the

news; does not see bending over him a kind, helpful, and well-beloved face. He sees and

hears and knows nothing; and in that state of rest and absence from the body they carry

him, still living and breathing, ashore.