The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (Vol. II)

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Among the prisoners thus taken was the sister of Mayobanex. She was the
wife of another cacique of the mountains, whose territories had never yet
been visited by the Spaniards; and she was reputed to be one of the most
beautiful women of the island. Tenderly attached to her brother, she had
abandoned the security of her own dominions, and had followed him among
rocks and precipices, participating in all his hardships, and comforting
him with a woman's sympathy and kindness. When her husband heard of her
captivity, he hastened to the Adelantado and offered to submit himself and
all his possessions to his sway, if his wife might be restored to him. The
Adelantado accepted his offer of allegiance, and released his wife and
several of his subjects who had been captured. The cacique, faithful to
his word, became a firm and valuable ally of the Spaniards, cultivating
large tracts of land, and supplying them with great quantities of bread
and other provisions.

Kindness appears never to have been lost upon the people of this island.
When this act of clemency reached the Ciguayans, they came in multitudes
to the fortress, bringing presents of various kinds, promising allegiance,
and imploring the release of Mayobanex and his family. The Adelantado
granted their prayers in part, releasing the wife and household of the
cacique, but still detaining him prisoner to insure the fidelity of his
subjects.

In the meantime the unfortunate Guarionex, who had been hiding in the
wildest parts of the mountains, was driven by hunger to venture down
occasionally into the plain in quest of food. The Ciguayans looking upon
him as the cause of their misfortunes, and perhaps hoping by his sacrifice
to procure the release of their chieftain, betrayed his haunts to the
Adelantado. A party was dispatched to secure him. They lay in wait in the
path by which he usually returned to the mountains. As the unhappy
cacique, after one of his famished excursions, was returning to his den
among the cliffs, he was surprised by the lurking Spaniards, and brought
in chains to Fort Conception. After his repeated insurrections, and the
extraordinary zeal and perseverance displayed in his pursuit, Guarionex
expected nothing less than death from the vengeance of the Adelantado. Don
Bartholomew, however, though stern in his policy, was neither vindictive
nor cruel in his nature. He considered the tranquillity of the Vega
sufficiently secured by the captivity of the cacique; and ordered him to
be detained a prisoner and hostage in the fortress. The Indian hostilities
in this important part of the island being thus brought to a conclusion,
and precautions taken to prevent their recurrence, Don Bartholomew
returned to the city of San Domingo, where, shortly after his arrival, he
had the happiness of receiving his brother, the admiral, after nearly two
years and six months' absence. [30]

Such was the active, intrepid, and sagacious, but turbulent and disastrous
administration of the Adelantado, in which we find evidences of the great
capacity, the mental and bodily vigor of this self-formed and almost
self-taught man. He united, in a singular degree, the sailor, the soldier,
and the legislator. Like his brother, the admiral, his mind and manners
rose immediately to the level of his situation, showing no arrogance nor
ostentation, and exercising the sway of sudden and extraordinary power
with the sobriety and moderation of one who had been born to rule. He has
been accused of severity in his government, but no instance appears of a
cruel or wanton abuse of authority. If he was stern towards the factious
Spaniards, he was just; the disasters of his administration were not
produced by his own rigor, but by the perverse passions of others, which
called for its exercise; and the admiral, who had more suavity of manner
and benevolence of heart, was not more fortunate in conciliating the good
will, and insuring the obedience of the colonists. The merits of Don
Bartholomew do not appear to have been sufficiently appreciated by the
world. His portrait has been suffered to remain too much in the shade; it
is worthy of being brought into the light, as a companion to that of his
illustrious brother. Less amiable and engaging, perhaps, in its
lineaments, and less characterized by magnanimity, its traits are
nevertheless bold, generous, and heroic, and stamped with iron firmness.

Book XII.

Chapter I.

Confusion in the Island.--Proceedings of the Rebels at Xaragua.

[August 30, 1498.]

Columbus arrived at San Domingo, wearied by a long and arduous voyage, and
worn down by infirmities; both mind and body craved repose, but from the
time he first entered into public life, he had been doomed never again to
taste the sweets of tranquillity. The island of Hispaniola, the favorite
child as it were of his hopes, was destined to involve him in perpetual
troubles, to fetter his fortunes, impede his enterprises, and imbitter the
conclusion of his life. What a scene of poverty and suffering had this
opulent and lovely island been rendered by the bad passions of a few
despicable men! The wars with the natives and the seditions among the
colonists had put a stop to the labors of the mines, and all hopes of
wealth were at an end. The horrors of famine had succeeded to those of
war. The cultivation of the earth had been generally neglected; several of
the provinces had been desolated during the late troubles; a great part of
the Indians had fled to the mountains, and those who remained had lost all
heart to labor, seeing the produce of their toils liable to be wrested
from them by ruthless strangers. It is true, the Vega was once more
tranquil, but it was a desolate tranquillity. That beautiful region, which
the Spaniards but four years before had found so populous and happy,
seeming to inclose in its luxuriant bosom all the sweets of nature, and to
exclude all the cares and sorrows of the world, was now a scene of
wretchedness and repining. Many of those Indian towns, where the Spaniards
had been detained by genial hospitality, and almost worshiped as
beneficent deities, were now silent and deserted. Some of their late
inhabitants were lurking among rocks and caverns; some were reduced to
slavery; many had perished with hunger, and many had fallen by the sword.
It seems almost incredible, that so small a number of men, restrained too
by well-meaning governors, could in so short a space of time have produced
such wide-spreading miseries. But the principles of evil have a fatal
activity. With every exertion, the best of men can do but a moderate
amount of good; but it seems in the power of the most contemptible
individual to do incalculable mischief.

The evil passions of the white men, which had inflicted such calamities
upon this innocent people, had insured likewise a merited return of
suffering to themselves. In no part was this more truly exemplified than
among the inhabitants of Isabella, the most idle, factious, and dissolute
of the island. The public works were unfinished; the gardens and fields
they had begun to cultivate lay neglected: they had driven the natives
from their vicinity by extortion and cruelty, and had rendered the country
around them a solitary wilderness. Too idle to labor, and destitute of any
resources with which to occupy their indolence, they quarrelled among
themselves, mutinied against their rulers, and wasted their time in
alternate riot and despondency. Many of the soldiery quartered about the
island had suffered from ill health during the late troubles, being shut
up in Indian villages where they could take no exercise, and obliged to
subsist on food to which they could not accustom themselves. Those
actively employed had been worn down by hard service, long marches, and
scanty food. Many of them were broken in constitution, and many had
perished by disease. There was a universal desire to leave the island, and
escape from miseries created by themselves. Yet this was the favored and
fruitful land to which the eyes of philosophers and poets in Europe were
fondly turned, as realizing the pictures of the golden age. So true it is,
that the fairest Elysium fancy ever devised would be turned into a
purgatory by the passions of bad men!

One of the first measures of Columbus on his arrival was to issue a
proclamation approving of all the measures of the Adelantado, and
denouncing Roldan and his associates. That turbulent man had taken
possession of Xaragua, and been kindly received by the natives. He had
permitted his followers to lead an idle and licentious life among its
beautiful scenes, making the surrounding country and its inhabitants
subservient to their pleasures and their passions. An event happened
previous to their knowledge of the arrival of Columbus, which threw
supplies into their hands, and strengthened their power. As they were one
day loitering on the sea-shore, they beheld three caravels at a distance,
the sight of which, in this unfrequented part of the ocean, filled them
with wonder and alarm. The ships approached the land, and came to anchor.
The rebels apprehended at first they were vessels dispatched in pursuit of
them. Roldan, however, who was sagacious as he was bold, surmised them to
be ships which had wandered from their course, and been borne to the
westward by the currents, and that they must be ignorant of the recent
occurrences of the island. Enjoining secrecy on his men, he went on board,
pretending to be stationed in that neighborhood for the purpose of keeping
the natives in obedience, and collecting tribute. His conjectures as to
the vessels were correct. They were, in fact, the three caravels detached
by Columbus from his squadron at the Canary Islands, to bring supplies to
the colonies. The captains, ignorant of the strength of the currents,
which set through the Caribbean Sea, had been carried west far beyond
their reckoning, until they had wandered to the coast of Xaragua.

Roldan kept his secret closely for three days. Being considered a man in
important trust and authority, the captains did not hesitate to grant all
his requests for supplies. He procured swords, lances, cross-bows, and
various military stores; while his men, dispersed through the three
vessels, were busy among the crews, secretly making partisans,
representing the hard life of the colonists at San Domingo, and the ease
and revelry in which they passed their time at Xaragua. Many of the crews
had been shipped in compliance with the admiral's ill-judged proposition,
to commute criminal punishments into transportation to the colony. They
were vagabonds, the refuse of Spanish towns, and culprits from Spanish
dungeons; the very men, therefore, to be wrought upon by such
representations, and they promised to desert on the first opportunity and
join the rebels.

It was not until the third day, that Alonzo Sanchez de Carvajal, the most
intelligent of the three captains, discovered the real character of the
guests he had admitted so freely on board of his vessels. It was then too
late; the mischief was effected. He and his fellow captains had many
earnest conversations with Roldan, endeavoring to persuade him from his
dangerous opposition to the regular authority. The certainty that Columbus
was actually on his way to the island, with additional forces, and
augmented authority, had operated strongly on his mind. He had, as has
already been intimated, prepared his friends at San Domingo to plead his
cause with the admiral, assuring him that he had only acted in opposition
to the injustice and oppression of the Adelantado, but was ready to submit
to Columbus on his arrival. Carvajal perceived that the resolution of
Roldan and of several of his principal confederates was shaken, and
flattered himself, that, if he were to remain some little time among the
rebels, he might succeed in drawing them back to their duty. Contrary winds
rendered it impossible for the ships to work up against the currents to
San Domingo. It was arranged among the captains, therefore, that a large
number of the people on board, artificers and others most important to the
service of the colony, should proceed to the settlement by land. They were
to be conducted by Juan Antonio Colombo, captain of one of the caravels, a
relative of the admiral, and zealously devoted to his interests. Arana was
to proceed with the ships, when the wind would permit, and Carvajal
volunteered to remain on shore, to endeavor to bring the rebels to their
allegiance.

On the following morning, Juan Antonio Colombo landed with forty men well
armed with cross-bows, swords, and lances, but was astonished to find
himself suddenly deserted by all his party excepting eight. The deserters
went off to the rebels, who received with exultation this important
reinforcement of kindred spirits. Juan Antonio endeavored in vain by
remonstrances and threats to bring them back to their duty. They were most
of them convicted culprits, accustomed to detest order, and to set law at
defiance. It was equally in vain that he appealed to Roldan, and reminded
him of his professions of loyalty to the government. The latter replied
that he had no means of enforcing obedience; his was a mere "Monastery of
Observation," where every one was at liberty to adopt the habit of the
order. Such was the first of a long train of evils, which sprang from this
most ill-judged expedient of peopling a colony with criminals, and thus
mingling vice and villany with the fountain-head of its population.

Juan Antonio, grieved and disconcerted, returned on board with the few who
remained faithful. Fearing further desertions, the two captains
immediately put to sea, leaving Carvajal on shore, to prosecute his
attempt at reforming the rebels. It was not without great difficulty and
delay that the vessels reached San Domingo; the ship of Carvajal having
struck on a sand-bank, and sustained great injury. By the time of their
arrival, the greater part of the provisions with which they had been
freighted was either exhausted or damaged. Alonzo Sanchez de Carvajal
arrived shortly afterwards by land, having been escorted to within six
leagues of the place by several of the insurgents, to protect him from the
Indians. He failed in his attempt to persuade the band to immediate
submission; but Roldan had promised that the moment he heard of the
arrival of Columbus, he would repair to the neighborhood of San Domingo,
to be at hand to state his grievances, and the reasons of his past
conduct, and to enter into a negotiation for the adjustment of all
differences. Carvajal brought a letter from him to the admiral to the same
purport; and expressed a confident opinion, from all that he observed of
the rebels, that they might easily be brought back to their allegiance by
an assurance of amnesty. [31]

Chapter II.

Negotiation of the Admiral with the Rebels.--Departure of Ships for Spain.

[1498.]

Notwithstanding the favorable representations of Carvajal, Columbus was
greatly troubled by the late event at Xaragua. He saw that the insolence
of the rebels, and their confidence in their strength, must be greatly
increased by the accession of such a large number of well-armed and
desperate confederates. The proposition of Roldan to approach to the
neighborhood of San Domingo, startled him. He doubted the sincerity of his
professions, and apprehended great evils and dangers from so artful,
daring, and turbulent a leader, with a rash and devoted crew at his
command. The example of this lawless horde, roving at large about the
island, and living in loose revel and open profligacy, could not but have
a dangerous effect upon the colonists newly arrived; and when they were
close at hand, to carry on secret intrigues, and to hold out a camp of
refuge to all malcontents, the loyalty of the whole colony might be sapped
and undermined.

Some measures were immediately necessary to fortify the fidelity of the
people against such seductions. He was aware of a vehement desire among
many to return to Spain; and of an assertion industriously propagated by
the seditious, that he and his brothers wished to detain the colonists on
the island through motives of self-interest. On the 12th of September,
therefore, he issued a proclamation, offering free passage and provisions
for the voyage to all who wished to return to Spain, in five vessels
nearly ready to put to sea. He hoped by this means to relieve the colony
from the idle and disaffected; to weaken the party of Roldan, and to
retain none about him but such as were sound-hearted and well-disposed.

He wrote at the same time to Miguel Ballester, the staunch and well-tried
veteran who commanded the fortress of Conception, advising him to be upon
his guard, as the rebels were coining into his neighborhood. He empowered
him also to have an interview with Roldan; to offer him pardon and
oblivion of the past, on condition of his immediate return to duty; and to
invite him to repair to San Domingo to have an interview with the admiral,
under a solemn, and, if required, a written assurance from the latter, of
personal safety. Columbus was sincere in his intentions. He was of a
benevolent and placable disposition, and singularly free from all
vindictive feelings towards the many worthless and wicked men who heaped
sorrow on his head.

Ballester had scarcely received this letter, when the rebels began to
arrive at the village of Bonao. This was situated in a beautiful valley,
or Vega, bearing the same name, about ten leagues from Fort Conception,
and about twenty from San Domingo, in a well-peopled and abundant country.
Here Pedro Riquelme, one of the ringleaders of the sedition, had large
possessions, and his residence became the headquarters of the rebels.
Adrian de Moxica, a man of turbulent and mischievous character, brought
his detachment of dissolute ruffians to this place of rendezvous. Roldan
and others of the conspirators drew together there by different routes.

No sooner did the veteran Miguel Ballester hear of the arrival of Roldan,
than he set forth to meet him. Ballester was a venerable man, gray-headed,
and of a soldier-like demeanor. Loyal, frank, and virtuous, of a serious
disposition, and great simplicity of heart, he was well chosen as a
mediator with rash and profligate men; being calculated to calm their
passions by his sobriety; to disarm their petulance by his age; to win
their confidence by his artless probity; and to awe their licentiousness
by his spotless virtue. [32]

Ballester found Roldan in company with Pedro Riquelme, Pedro de Gamez, and
Adrian de Moxica, three of his principal confederates. Flushed with a
confidence of his present strength, Roldan treated the proffered pardon
with contempt, declaring that he did not come there to treat of peace, but
to demand the release of certain Indians captured unjustifiably, and about
to be shipped to Spain as slaves, notwithstanding that he, in his capacity
of alcalde mayor, had pledged his word for their protection. He declared
that, until these Indians were given up, he would listen to no terms of
compact; throwing out an insolent intimation at the same time, that he
held the admiral and his fortunes in his hand, to make and mar them as he
pleased.

The Indians he alluded to were certain subjects of Guarionex, who had been
incited by Roldan to resist the exaction of tribute, and who, under the
sanction of his supposed authority, had engaged in the insurrections of
the Vega. Roldan knew that the enslavement of the Indians was an unpopular
feature in the government of the island, especially with the queen; and
the artful character of this man is evinced in his giving his opposition
to Columbus the appearance of a vindication of the rights of the suffering
islanders. Other demands were made of a highly insolent nature, and the
rebels declared that, in all further negotiations, they would treat with
no other intermediate agent than Carvajal, having had proofs of his
fairness and impartiality in the course of their late communications with
him at Xaragua.

This arrogant reply to his proffer of pardon was totally different from
what the admiral had been led to expect, and placed him in an embarrassing
situation. He seemed surrounded by treachery and falsehood. He knew that
Roldan had friends and secret partisans even among those who professed to
remain faithful; and he knew not how far the ramifications of the
conspiracy might extend. A circumstance soon occurred to show the justice
of his apprehensions. He ordered the men of San Domingo to appear under
arms, that he might ascertain the force with which he could take the field
in case of necessity. A report was, immediately circulated that they were
to be led to Bonao, against the rebels. Not above seventy men appeared
under arms, and of these not forty were to be relied upon. One affected to
be lame, another ill; some had relations, and others had friends among the
followers of Roldan: almost all were disaffected to the service.
[33]

Columbus saw that a resort to arms would betray his own weakness and the
power of the rebels, and completely prostrate the dignity and authority of
government. It was necessary to temporize, therefore, however humiliating
such conduct might be deemed. He had detained the five ships for eighteen
days in port, hoping in some way to have put an end to this rebellion, so
as to send home favorable accounts of the island to the sovereigns. The
provisions of the ships, however, were wasting. The Indian prisoners on
board were suffering and perishing; several of them threw themselves
overboard, or were suffocated with heat in the holds of the vessels. He
was anxious, also, that as many of the discontented colonists as possible
should make sail for Spain before any commotion should take place.

On the 18th of October, therefore, the ships put to sea. [34] Columbus
wrote to the sovereigns an account of the rebellion, and of his proffered
pardon being refused. As Roldan pretended that it was a mere quarrel
between him and the Adelantado, of which the admiral was not an impartial
judge, the latter entreated that Roldan might be summoned to Spain, where
the sovereigns might be his judges; or that an investigation might take
place in presence of Alonzo Sanchez de Carvajal, who was friendly to
Roldan, and of Miguel Ballester, as witness on the part of the Adelantado.
He attributed, in a great measure, the troubles of this island to his own
long detention in Spain, and the delays thrown in his way by those
appointed to assist him, who had retarded the departure of the ships with
supplies, until the colony had been reduced to the greatest scarcity.
Hence had arisen discontent, murmuring, and finally rebellion. He
entreated the sovereigns, in the most pressing manner, that the affairs of
the colony might not be neglected, and those at Seville, who had charge of
its concerns, might be instructed at least not to devise impediments
instead of assistance. He alluded to his chastisement of the contemptible
Ximeno Breviesca, the insolent minion of Fonseca, and entreated that
neither that nor any other circumstance might be allowed to prejudice him
in the royal favor, through the misrepresentations of designing men. He
assured them that the natural resources of the island required nothing but
good management to supply all the wants of the colonists; but that the
latter were indolent and profligate. He proposed to send home, by every
ship, as in the present instance, a number of the discontented and
worthless, to be replaced by sober and industrious men. He begged also
that ecclesiastics might be sent out for the instruction and conversion of
the Indians; and, what was equally necessary, for the reformation of the
dissolute Spaniards. He required also a man learned in the law, to
officiate as judge over the island, together with several officers of the
royal revenue. Nothing could surpass the soundness and policy of these
suggestions; but unfortunately one clause marred the moral beauty of this
excellent letter. He requested that for two years longer the Spaniards
might be permitted to employ the Indians as slaves; only making use of
such, however, as were captured in wars and insurrections. Columbus had
the usage of the age in excuse for this suggestion; but it is at variance
with his usual benignity of feeling, and his paternal conduct towards
these unfortunate people.

At the same time he wrote another letter, giving an account of his recent
voyage, accompanied by a chart, and by specimens of the gold, and
particularly of the pearls found in the Gulf of Paria. He called especial
attention to the latter as being the first specimens of pearls found in
the New World. It was in this letter that he described the newly-discovered
continent in such enthusiastic terms, as the most favored part of the east,
the source of inexhaustible treasures, the supposed seat of the terrestrial
Paradise; and he promised to prosecute the discovery of its glorious realms
with the three remaining ships, as soon as the affairs of the island should
permit.