Crisis In The Admiral's Life - 3
But amid his wallowings in this slough of stupor, when all else, in him had been wellnigh
submerged by it, two dim lights were preserved towards which, although foundered
up to the chin, he began to struggle; and by superhuman efforts did at last extricate
himself from the theological stupor and get himself blown clean again by the salt winds
before he died. One light was his religion; not to be confounded with theological stupor,
but quite separate from it in my belief; a certain steadfast and consuming faith in a Power
that could see and understand and guide him to the accomplishment of his purpose. This
faith had been too often a good friend and help to Christopher for him to forget it very
long, even while he was staggering in the quag with Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the Fathers;
and gradually, as I say, he worked himself out into the region of activity again. First,
thinking it a pity that his flounderings in the slough should be entirely wasted, he had a
copy of his precious theological work made and presented it to the Sovereigns, with a
letter urging them (since he himself was unable to do it) to undertake a crusade for the
recovery of the Holy Sepulchre—not an altogether wild proposal in those days. But
Ferdinand had other uses for his men and his money, and contented himself with
despatching Peter Martyr on a pacific mission to the Grand Soldan of Egypt.
The other light left unquenched in Columbus led him back to the firm ground of maritime
enterprise; he began to long for the sea again, and for a chance of doing something to
restore his reputation. An infinitely better and more wholesome frame of mind this; by all
means let him mend his reputation by achievement, instead of by writing books in a
theological trance or stupor, and attempting to prove that he was chosen by the Almighty.
He now addressed himself to the better task of getting himself chosen by men to do
something which should raise him again in their esteem.
His maritime ambition was no doubt stimulated at this time by witnessing the departure
of Ovando, in February 1502, with a fleet of thirty-five ships and a company of 2500
people. It was not in the Admiral's nature to look on without envy at an equipment the
like of which he himself had never been provided with, and he did not restrain his
sarcasms at its pomp and grandeur, nor at the ease with which men could follow a road
which had once been pointed out to them. Ovando had a great body-guard such as
Columbus had never had; and he also carried with him a great number of picked married
men with their families, all with knowledge of some trade or craft, whose presence in the
colony would be a guarantee of permanence and steadiness. He perhaps remembered his
own crowd of ruffians and gaol-birds, and realised the bitterness of his own mistakes. It
was a very painful moment for him, and he was only partially reconciled to it by the issue
of a royal order to Ovando under which he was required to see to the restoration of the
Admiral's property. If it had been devoted to public purposes it was to be repaid him from
the royal funds; but if it had been merely distributed among the colonists Bobadilla was
to be made responsible for it. The Admiral was also allowed to send out an agent to
represent him and look after his interests; and he appointed Alonso de Carvajal to this
office.
Ovando once gone, the Admiral could turn again to his own affairs. It is true there were
rumours that the whole fleet had perished, for it encountered a gale very soon after
leaving Cadiz, and a great quantity of the deck hamper was thrown overboard and was
washed on the shores of Spain; and the Sovereigns were so bitterly distressed that, as it is
said, they shut them selves up for eight days. News eventually came, however, that only
one ship had been lost and that the rest had proceeded safely to San Domingo. Columbus,
much recovered in body and mind, now began to apply for a fleet for himself. He had
heard of the discovery by the Portuguese of the southern route to India; no doubt he had
heard also much gossip of the results of the many private voyages of discovery that were
sailing from Spain at this time; and he began to think seriously about his own discoveries
and the way in which they might best be extended. He thought much of his voyage to the
west of Trinidad and of the strange pent-up seas and currents that he had discovered
there. He remembered the continual westward trend of the current, and how all the
islands in that sea had their greatest length east and west, as though their shores had been
worn into that shape by the constant flowing of the current; and it was not an unnatural
conclusion for him to suppose that there was a channel far to the west through which
these seas poured and which would lead him to the Golden Chersonesus. He put away
from him that nightmare madness that he transacted on the coast of Cuba. He knew very
well that he had not yet found the Golden Chersonesus and the road to India; but he
became convinced that the western current would lead him there if only he followed it
long enough. There was nothing insane about this theory; it was in fact a very wellobserved
and well-reasoned argument; and the fact that it happened to be entirely wrong
is no reflection on the Admiral's judgment. The great Atlantic currents at that time had
not been studied; and how could he know that the western stream of water was the
northern half of a great ocean current which sweeps through the Caribbean Sea, into and
round the Gulf of Mexico, and flows out northward past Florida in the Gulf Stream?
His applications for a fleet were favourably received by the King and Queen, but much
frowned upon by certain high officials of the Court. They were beginning to regard
Columbus as a dangerous adventurer who, although he happened to have discovered the
western islands, had brought the Spanish colony there to a dreadful state of disorder; and
had also, they alleged, proved himself rather less than trustworthy in matters of treasure.
Still in the summer days of 1501 he was making himself very troublesome at Court with
constant petitions and letters about his rights and privileges; and Ferdinand was far from
unwilling to adopt a plan by which they would at least get rid of him and keep him safely
occupied at the other side of the world at the cost of a few caravels. There was, besides,
always an element of uncertainty. His voyage might come to nothing, but on the other
hand the Admiral was no novice at this game of discovery, and one could not tell but that
something big might come of it. After some consideration permission was given to him to
fit out a fleet of four ships, and he proceeded to Seville in the autumn of 1501 to get his
little fleet ready. Bartholomew was to come with him, and his son Ferdinand also, who
seems to have much endeared himself to the Admiral in these dark days, and who would
surely be a great comfort to him on the voyage. Beatriz Enriquez seems to have passed
out of his life; certainly he was not living with her either now or on his last visit to Spain;
one way or another, that business is at an end for him. Perhaps poor Beatriz, seeing her
son in such a high place at Court, has effaced herself for his sake; perhaps the
appointment was given on condition of such effacement; we do not know.
Columbus was in no hurry over his preparations. In the midst of them he found time to
collect a whole series of documents relating to his titles and dignities, which he had
copied and made into a great book which he called his "Book of Privileges," and the
copies of which were duly attested before a notary at Seville on January 5, 1502. He
wrote many letters to various friends of his, chiefly in relation to these privileges; not
interesting or illuminating letters to us, although very important to busy Christopher
when he wrote them. Here is one written to Nicolo Oderigo, a Genoese Ambassador who
came to Spain on a brief mission in the spring of 1502, and who, with certain other
residents in Spain, is said to have helped Columbus in his preparations for his fourth
voyage:
