COLUMBUS, CHRISTOPHER 



145 



There were a thousand persons in the grow- 

 ing city, mid Columbus begged for supplier i.f 

 funil. additional workmen, and especially for 

 . In return lie proposed to -end natives 

 of tlie Carihbee. islands who should serve the 

 Spaniards a^ >la\es. and should \tc taught the 

 Spanish language and the Christian faith. 



When the ships had sailed for Spain there was 

 great discontent among those whose term of serv- 

 iee hound them to remain. A ringleader was 

 soon found in Bernal Diaz, who proposed that 

 they should seize the ships in the harbor and 

 return, where the influence of Diaz at court 

 would secure them a hearing in their com- 

 jilaints of the misrepresentations of Columbus. 

 The mutiny was discovered, the leaders were 

 arroted, and a memorial full of libelous accusa- 

 tions, in Diaz's handwriting, was found in the 

 buoy of one of the ships. Columbus confined 

 I Max. on board a vessel, intending to send him, 

 with the memorial, to Spain for trial. The oth- 

 er mutineers were punished lightly, and all arms 

 and powder were put into the largest ship under 

 the charge of a trusty officer. 



Having regained his health, Columbus, taking 

 with him 400 of the strongest men in the settle- 

 ment, set out for the golden mountains, where 

 he intended to build a fort. Everywhere he 

 treated the natives with the same kindness 

 which had always won them. He saw such 

 evidence of valuable mines that he ordered a 

 fort to be built, to which he gave the name of 

 St. Thomas, and left it in charge of Pedro Mar- 

 garite, a cavalier for whom he had a high re- 

 gard. On his return Columbus found the little 

 settlement a garden of familiar growths. The 

 plants and seeds brought from the Old World 

 dad sprung up wonderfully in the new ; but he 

 was distressed to find that sickness and discon- 

 tent prevailed. There were not well or willing 

 men enough to care for the growing crops, and 

 the stock brought by them had begun to fail. 

 Columbus set every man at work, the gentle as 

 well as the common. The curses of the hidalgos 

 were long and deep, but he was unrelenting. 



Me received news that the Indians had shown 

 hostility toward the men left at St. Thomas, and 

 sent twenty men to their assistance. 



The next plan for the good of the colony 

 was to rouse interest by sending an army to 

 St. Thomas, whence they were to separate into 

 exploring parties. Ojeda was to command at 

 St. Thomas, and relieve Margarite, who was to 

 have general charge of the explorers. Accom- 

 panying them was a letter of instructions urg- 

 ing strong measures for regulating the army, 

 and gentle, but firm methods with the Indians. 

 Then, leaving his brother Diego in command 

 of Isabella, Columbus set out with three cara- 

 vels to continue his explorations. lie sailed to 

 the island of Jamaica, of which he took pos- 

 session in the name of the Crown, calling it 

 Santiago. He then sailed to Cuba, intending 

 to skirt its shores until he had satisfied him- 

 self whether it was the mainland. Many weeks 

 were spent in pursuing his investigations, and 

 he came at last to the conclusion that he had 

 already passed the boundaries of Asia as seen 

 on the map of Ptolemy ; that in his path lay 

 A urea Chersonesus (Malacca): and that by 

 doubling that and crossing the Gulf of the 

 VOL. xxxn. 10 A 



Ganges, he might pass Trapoban. and through the 

 straits of l'.ah-el-mandeh and the Red Sea. then 

 by land to Jerusalem, when, reaching the Medi- 

 terranean through .Joppa. he could sail for Spain, 

 having circumnavigated the earth. 



But while Columbus was sustaining his hope 

 with such far-reaching visions, the men who 

 sailed with him were again almost in mutiny. 

 This time they were not common seamen alone; 

 there were skillful navigators and men learned 

 in the geography of the day. They felt as- 

 sured that they were skirting along the coast of 

 Asia, and that somewhere beyond lay the ancient 

 civilization ; but they were hungry and over- 

 tasked, and opposed to proceeding any farther. 

 For four days after the remonstrance had become 

 almost command, Columbus kept on his course. 

 At the end of that time, being thoroughly 

 satisfied that he had found the mainland, he 

 reluctantly yielded to entreaty, and turned 

 about. Before doing so he sent to each vessel 

 a public notary with four witnesses demanding 

 that everybody on board should say whether he 

 believed this was the mainland, and further 

 demanding any reason that any one might have 

 for believing the contrary. If a doubt existed 

 in any mind that the land before him was the 

 extremity of India, whence it was possible to 

 return overland to Spain, also that traveling 

 inland they would soon come to civilized peo- 

 ples, that doubt was to be made known at once. 

 On each of the vessels charts and maps were 

 spread, log books consulted, and the conclusion 

 arrived at was, that such was the deliberate 

 opinion of his fellow-sailors. It oould not be, 

 they said, that the 335 leagues of their journey 

 could be the circuit of a mere, island, as one of 

 that extent had never been heard of ; and further- 

 more, the land stretched limitlessly, trending to- 

 ward the south, agreeably to the maps of India. 

 They were then required to take an oath that 

 such was their opinion. It was proclaimed by 

 the notary that if anybody should in future con- 

 tradict this solemnly stated belief of his, he 

 would be punished by a fine of 10,000 maravedis, 

 if he were an officer ; if a ship's boy or common 

 seaman, by receiving 100 lashes and having his 

 tongue cut out. 



On June 13 Columbus abandoned his cher- 

 ished project and began making his way back- 

 ward, with many pauses to take possession of 

 new islands, and to give the mariners time for 

 rest and change ; being delayed and almost 

 wrecked by tempests, and finally, when he was 

 nearly in sight of Isabella, his giant strength 

 gave way, he sank into a lethargy resembling 

 death and was carried unconscious to his home 

 in the new colony early in September. 



The first person whom he saw on returning to 

 consciousness was his brother Bartholomew, who 

 had been sent to England to lay the project l>e- 

 fore Henry VII. There had been many delays 

 in accomplishing this, but when Bartholomew 

 obtained audience . of the King he received 

 an eager response, and had reached Paris on 

 his return with Henry's agreement when he 

 heard of Christopher's arrival in Spain. When 

 he reached Seville Columbus had sot out on his 

 second voyage. Bartholomew went to the court. 

 and. as a result of his conference, was furnished 

 with three ships laden with supplies, and was 



