Ups And Downs - 1

Ups And Downs - 1

While Columbus was toiling under the tropical sun to make good his promises to the

Crown, Margarite and Buil, having safely come home to Spain from across the seas, were

busy setting forth their view of the value of his discoveries. It was a view entirely

different from any that Ferdinand and Isabella had heard before, and coming as it did

from two men of position and importance who had actually been in Espanola, and were

loyal and religious subjects of the Crown, it could not fail to receive, if not immediate

and complete credence, at any rate grave attention. Hitherto the Sovereigns had only

heard one side of the matter; an occasional jealous voice may have been raised from the

neighbourhood of the Pinzons or some one else not entirely satisfied with his own

position in the affair; but such small cries of dissent had naturally had little chance

against the dignified eloquence of the Admiral.

Now, however, the matter was different. People who were at least the equals of

Columbus in intelligence, and his superiors by birth and education, had seen with their

own eyes the things of which he had spoken, and their account differed widely from his.

They represented things in Espanola as being in a very bad way indeed, which was true

enough; drew a dismal picture of an overcrowded colony ravaged with disease and

suffering from lack of provisions; and held forth at length upon the very doubtful quality

of the gold with which the New World was supposed to abound. More than this, they

brought grave charges against Columbus himself, representing him as unfit to govern a

colony, given to favouritism, and, worst of all, guilty of having deliberately

misrepresented for his own ends the resources of the colony. This as we know was not

true. It was not for his own ends, or for any ends at all within the comprehension of men

like Margarite and Buil, that poor Christopher had spoken so glowingly out of a heart full

of faith in what he had seen and done. Purposes, dim perhaps, but far greater and loftier

than any of which these two mean souls had understanding, animated him alike in his

discoveries and in his account of them; although that does not alter the unpleasant fact

that at the stage matters had now reached it seemed as though there might have been

serious misrepresentation.

Ferdinand and Isabella, thus confronted with a rather difficult situation, acted with great

wisdom and good sense. How much or how little they believed we do not know, but it

was obviously their duty, having heard such an account from responsible officers, to

investigate matters for themselves without assuming either that the report was true or

untrue. They immediately had four caravels furnished with supplies, and decided to

appoint an agent to accompany the expedition, investigate the affairs of the colony, and

make a report to them. If the Admiral was still absent when their agent reached the

colony he was to be entrusted with the distribution of the supplies which were being sent

out; for Columbus's long absence from Espanola had given rise to some fears for his

safety.

The Sovereigns had just come to this decision (April 1495) when a letter arrived from the

Admiral himself, announcing his return to Espanola after discovering the veritable

mainland of Asia, as the notarial document enclosed with the letter attested. Torres and

James Columbus had arrived in Spain, bearing the memorandum which some time ago

we saw the Admiral writing; and they were able to do something towards allaying the

fears of the Sovereigns as to the condition of the colony. The King and Queen,

nevertheless, wisely decided to carry out their original intention, and in appointing an

agent they very handsomely chose one of the men whom Columbus had recommended to

them in his letter—Juan Aguado. This action shows a friendliness to Columbus and

confidence in him that lead one to suspect that the tales of Margarite and Buil had been

taken with a grain of salt.

At the same time the Sovereigns made one or two orders which could not but be

unwelcome to Columbus. A decree was issued making it lawful for all native-born

Spaniards to make voyages of discovery, and to settle in Espanola itself if they liked.

This was an infringement of the original privileges granted to the Admiral—privileges

which were really absurd, and which can only have been granted in complete disbelief

that anything much would come of his discovery. It took Columbus two years to get this

order modified, and in the meantime a great many Spanish adventurers, our old friends

the Pinzons among them, did actually make voyages and added to the area explored by

the Spaniards in Columbus's lifetime. Columbus was bitterly jealous that any one should

be admitted to the western ocean, which he regarded as his special preserve, except under

his supreme authority; and he is reported to have said that once the way to the West had

been pointed out "even the very tailors turned explorers." There, surely, spoke the long

dormant woolweaver in him.

The commission given to Aguado was very brief, and so vaguely worded that it might

mean much or little, according to the discretion of the commissioner and the necessities

of the case as viewed by him. "We send to you Juan Aguada, our Groom of the

Chambers, who will speak to you on our part. We command you to give him faith and

credit." A letter was also sent to Columbus in which he was instructed to reduce the

number of people dependent on the colony to five hundred instead of a thousand; and the

control of the mines was entrusted to one Pablo Belvis, who was sent out as chief

metallurgist. As for the slaves that Columbus had sent home, Isabella forbade their sale

until inquiry could be made into the condition of their capture, and the fine moral point

involved was entrusted to the ecclesiastical authorities for examination and solution. Poor

Christopher, knowing as he did that five hundred heretics were being burned every year

by the Grand Inquisitor, had not expected this hair-splitting over the fate of heathens who

had rebelled against Spanish authority; and it caused him some distress when he heard of

it. The theologians, however, proved equal to the occasion, and the slaves were duly sold

in Seville market.

Aguado sailed from Cadiz at the end of August 1495, and reached Espanola in October.

James Columbus (who does not as yet seem to be in very great demand anywhere, and

who doubtless conceals behind his grave visage much honest amazement at the amount

of life that he is seeing) returned with him. Aguado, on arriving at Isabella, found that

Columbus was absent establishing forts in the interior of the island, Bartholomew being

left in charge at Isabella.

Aguado, who had apparently been found faithful in small matters, was found wanting in

his use of the authority that had been entrusted to him. It seems to have turned his head;

for instead of beginning quietly to investigate the affairs of the colony as he had been

commanded to do he took over from Bartholomew the actual government, and interpreted

his commission as giving him the right to supersede the Admiral himself. The unhappy

colony, which had no doubt been enjoying some brief period of peace under the wise

direction of Bartholomew, was again thrown into confusion by the doings of Aguado. He

arrested this person, imprisoned that; ordered that things should be done this way, which

had formerly been done that way; and if they had formerly been done that way, then he

ordered that they should be done this way—in short he committed every mistake possible

for a man in his situation armed with a little brief authority. He did not hesitate to let it be

known that he was there to examine the conduct of the Admiral himself; and we may be

quite sure that every one in the colony who had a grievance or an ill tale to carry, carried

it to Aguado. His whole attitude was one of enmity and disloyalty to the Admiral who

had so handsomely recommended him to the notice of the Sovereigns; and so undisguised

was his attitude that even the Indians began to lodge their complaints and to see a chance

by which they might escape from the intolerable burden of the gold tribute.

It was at this point that Columbus returned and found Aguado ruling in the place of

Bartholomew, who had wisely made no protest against his own deposition, but was

quietly waiting for the Admiral to return. Columbus might surely have been forgiven if

he had betrayed extreme anger and annoyance at the doings of Aguado; and it is entirely

to his credit that he concealed such natural wrath as he may have felt, and greeted

Aguado with extreme courtesy and ceremony as a representative of the Sovereigns. He

made no protest, but decided to return himself to Spain and confront the jealousy and illfame

that were accumulating against him.

Just as the ships were all ready to sail, one of the hurricanes which occur periodically in

the West Indies burst upon the island, lashing the sea into a wall of advancing foam that

destroyed everything before it. Among other things it destroyed three out of the four

ships, dashing them on the beach and reducing them to complete wreckage. The only one

that held to her anchor and, although much battered and damaged, rode out the gale, was

the Nina, that staunch little friend that had remained faithful to the Admiral through so

many dangers and trials. There was nothing for it but to build a new ship out of the

fragments of the wrecks, and to make the journey home with two ships instead of with

four.

At this moment, while he was waiting for the ship to be completed, Columbus heard a

piece of news of a kind that never failed to rouse his interest. There was a young Spaniard

named Miguel Diaz who had got into disgrace in Isabella some time before on account of

a duel, and had wandered into the island until he had come out on the south coast at the

mouth of the river Ozama, near the site of the present town of Santo Domingo. There he

had fallen in love with a female cacique and had made his home with her. She, knowing

the Spanish taste, and anxious to please her lover and to retain him in her territory, told

him of some rich gold-mines that there were in the neighbourhood, and suggested that he

should inform the Admiral, who would perhaps remove the settlement from Isabella to

the south coast. She provided him with guides and sent him off to Isabella, where,

hearing that his antagonist had recovered, and that he himself was therefore in no danger

of punishment, he presented himself with his story.

Columbus immediately despatched Bartholomew with a party to examine the mines; and

sure enough they found in the river Hayna undoubted evidence of a wealth far in excess

of that contained in the Cibao gold-mines. Moreover, they had noticed two ancient

excavations about which the natives could tell them nothing, but which made them think

that the mines had once been worked.