CHAPTER XXVII
ONE by one were incoming, were folding wings, were anchoring, Spanishships. Three were larger each than the _Santa Maria_ and the _Pinta_together; the others caravels of varying size. Seventeen in all, afleet, crowded with men, having cannon and banners and music. Europe wascoming with strength into Asia! The Indians on the beach were moved asby an unresting wind. They had terror, they had delight, and some a merestupidity of staring. The greatest ship, the first to anchor, carriedthe banner of Castile and Leon, and the Admiral's banner. Now a boat putoff from her, boats also from the two ships next in grandeur.
As they came over the blue wave Juan Lepe stepped down sand to wateredge. Not here, but somewhat to the west, before La Navidad would onelook for this anchoring. He thought rightly that the Admiral came herefrom La Navidad, where he found only ruin, but also some straying Indianwho could give news. So it was, for presently in the foremost boat Imade out two Guarico men. They had told of Caonabo and of Guacanagari'sfortunes, and of every Spaniard dead of that illness or slain byCaonabo. They would put Juan Lepe among these last, but here was JuanLepe, one only left of that thirty-eight.
The boat approached. I saw the bared head, higher than any other, thewhite hair, the blue-gray eyes, the strong nose and lips, thewhole majestic air of the man, as of a great one chosen. MasterChristopherus--Don Cristoval--_el Almirante_! One of the rowers, andthat was Sancho with whom I had walked on the Fishertown road, firstsaw me and gave a startled cry. All in the boat turned head. I heard theAdmiral's voice, "Aye, it is! It is!"
Boat touched sand, there was landing. All sprang out. The Admiral tookme in his arms. "You alone--one only?"
I answered, "One only. The most died in their duty."
He released me. "Senors, this is senor Juan Lepe, that good physicianwhom we left. Now tell--tell all--before we go among this folk!"
By water edge I told, thirty men of Spain around me. A woeful story, Imade it short. These men listened, and when it was done fell a silence.Christopherus Columbus broke it. "The wave sucks under and throws outagain, but we sail the sea, have sailed it and will sail it!--Now werethese Indians false or fair?"
I could tell how fair they had been--could praise Guarico andGuacanagari and Guarin. He listened with great satisfaction. "I wouldlay my head for that Indian!"
Talk with him could not be prolonged, for we were in a scene of thegreatest business and commotion. When I sought for Guarin he was gone.Nor was Guacanagari yet at hand. I looked at the swarming ships and shipboats, and the coming and coming upon the beach of more and more clothedmen, and at the tall green palms and the feathered mountains. Thishost, it seemed to me, was not so artlessly amazed as had been we of the_Santa Maria_, the _Pinta_ and the _Nina_, when first we came to landsso strange to Europe. Presently I made out that they had seen othersof these islands and shores. Coming from Spain they had sailed moresoutherly than we had done before them. They had made a great dip andhad come north-by-west to Hispaniola. I heard names of islands given bythe Admiral, Dominica, Marigalante, Guadaloupe, Santa Maria la Antigua,San Juan. They had anchored by these, set foot upon them, even foughtwith people who were Caribs, Caribals or Cannibals. They had a dozenCaribs, men and women, prisoners upon the _Marigalante_ that was theAdmiral's ship.
This group about Juan Lepe, survivor of La Navidad, talked like seasonedfinders and takers. For the most part they were young men and hidalgos,fighters against the Moors, released by the final conquest of thosepaynims, out now for further wild adventure and for gold with which toreturn, wealthy and still young, to Spanish country, Spanish cities,Spanish women! They had the virtue and the vice of their sort, courage,miraculous generosities and as miraculous weaknesses. Gold, valor,comradeship--and eyes resting appraisingly upon young Guarico womenthere upon the silver beach with Guarico men.
I heard one cry "Master Juan Lepe!" and turning found Luis Torres. Weembraced, we were so glad each to see the other. My hidalgos were gone,but before I could question Luis or he me, there bore down uponus, coming together like birds, half a dozen friars. "We bringtwelve--number of the Apostles!" said Luis. "Monks and priests. FatherBernardo Buil is their head. The Holy Father hath appointed him Vicarhere. You won't find him a Fray Ignatio!"
A bull-necked, dark-browed, choleric looking man addressed me. HisBenedictine dress became him ill. He should have been a Captain of FreeLances in whatever brisk war was waging. He said, "The survivor, JuanLepe?--We stopped at your La Navidad and found ruin and emptiness. Theremust have been ill management--gross!"
"They are all dead," I answered. "None of us manage the towers so verywell!"
He regarded me more attentively. "The physician, Juan Lepe. Where didyou study?"
"In Poitiers and in Paris, Father."
"You have," he said, "the height and sinew and something of the eye andvoice of a notable disappeared heretic, Jayme de Marchena, who slippedthe Dominicans. I saw him once from a doorway. But that the Prior of LaRabida himself told me that he had accurate knowledge that the man wasgone with the Jews to Fez, I could almost think--But of course it is notpossible, and now I see the differences."
I answered him with some indifferent word, and we came to the Haytiens,and how many had Fray Ignatio made Christian? "I knew him," said theBenedictine. "A good man, but weak, weak!"
Juan Lepe asked of the Indians the Admiral had taken to Spain. "Butsix reached us alive. We instructed them and baptized them. A greatevent--the Grand Cardinal and the King and the Queen attending! Threedied during the summer, but blessedly, being the first of all theirpeople in all time to enter heaven. A great salvation!"
He looked at the forest and mountains, the sands, the Guaricos, as at acity he was besieging.
"Ha!" said Father Buil, and with his missionaries moved up the beach.
Luis and I began to talk. "No need to tell me that Spain gave youwelcome!"'
"The royalest ever! First we came to Lisbon, driven in by storm, and hadit there from King John, and then to Palos which, so to speak, went mad!Then through Spain to Barcelona, where was the court, and all the bellsin every town ringing and every door and window crowded, and here isthe Faery Prince on a white charger, his Indians behind him and goldand parrots and his sailors! Processions and processions--alcalde andalcayde and don and friar and priest, and let us stop at the churchand kneel before high altar, and vow again in seven years to free theSepulchre! He hath walked and ridden, waked and slept, in a great, highvision! Most men have visions but he can sustain vision."
"Aye, he can!"
"So at last into Barcelona, where grandees meet us, and so on to thecourt, and music as though the world had turned music! And the King andQueen and great welcome, and, 'Sit beside us, Don Cristoval Colon!' and'Tell and tell again', and 'Praise we Most High God!'"
"It is something for which to praise! Ends of the earth beginning tomeet."
"Aye! So we write that very night to the Pope to be confirmed that theglory and profit under God are to Castile and Aragon. But the Queenthought most of the heathen brought to Christ. And the Admiral thinks ofhis sons and his brothers and his old father, and of the Holy Sepulchreand of the Prophecies, and he has the joy of the runner who touchesthe goal!--I would you could have seen the royalty with which he wastreated--not one day nor week but a whole summer long--the flocking,the bowing and capping, the 'Do me the honor--', the 'I have a smallpetition.' Nothing conquers like conquering!"
"He had long patience."
"Aye. Well, he is at height now. But he has got with him the olddisastrous seeds.--Fifteen hundred men, and among them quite a plentylike Gutierrez and Escobedo! But there are good men, too, and a greatlot of romantical daredevils. No pressing this time! We might havebrought five thousand could the ships have held them. 'Come to theIndies and make your fortune!'--'Aye, that is my desire!'"
I said, "I am looking now at a romantical daredevil whom I have seenbefore, though I am sure that he never noticed me."
"Don Alonso de Ojeda? He is feather in cap, and s
ometimes cap, and evenat stress head within the cap! Without moving you've beckoned him."
There approached a young man of whom I knew something, having had himpointed out by Enrique de Cerda in Santa Fe. I had before that heard hisname and somewhat of his exploits. In our day, over all Spain, one mightfind or hear of cavaliers of this brand. War with the Moor had lastedsomewhat longer than the old famed war with Troy. It had modeled youth;young men were old soldiers. When there came up a sprite like this onehe drank war like wine. A slight young man, taut as a rope in a gale,with dark eyes and red lips and a swift, decisive step, up he came.
"Oh, you are the man who lived out of all your fort? How did you manageit?"
"I had a friend among these friendly Indians who rescued me."
"Yes! It is excellent warfare to have friends.--You have seen no knightnor men-at-arms, nor heard of such?"
"Not under those names."
"How far do you think we may be from true houses and cities, castles,fortresses?"
"I haven't the least idea. By the looks of it, pretty far."
"It seems to me that you speak truth," he answered. "Well, it isn't whatwe looked for, but it's something! Room yet to dare!" Off he went, halfMercury, half Mars, and a sprig of youth to draw the eyes.
"Was there nothing ever heard," I asked Luis, "of the _Pinta_ and MartinPinzon?"
"He is dead."
"You saw the wreck?"
"No, not that way, though true it is that he wrecked himself! I forgetthat you know nothing. We met the _Pinta_ last January, not a day fromhere, with Monte Cristi there yet in sight. When he came aboard and satin the great cabin I do not know what he said, except that it was ofseparation by that storm, and the feeling that two parties discoveringwould thereby discover the more, and the better serve their Majesties.The Admiral made no quarrel with him. He had some gold and some news ofcoasts that we had not seen. And he did not seem to think it necessaryto seem penitent or anything but just naturally Martin Pinzon. So on wesailed together, he on the _Pinta_ and the Admiral on the _Nina_. Butthat was a rough voyage home over Ocean-Sea! Had we had such weathercoming, might have been mutiny and throat-cutting and putting back,Cathay and India being of no aid to dead men! Six times at least wethought we were drowned, and made vows, kneeling all together and theAdmiral praying for us, Fray Ignatio not being there. Then came clear,but beyond Canaries a three days', three nights' weather that trulydrove us apart, the _Pinta_ and the _Nina_. We lost each other in thedarkness and never found again. We were beaten into the Tagus, the_Pinta_ on to Bayonne. Then, mid-March, we came to Palos, landed andthe wonder began. And in three days who should come limping in but the_Pinta_? But she missed the triumph, and Martin Pinzon was sick, andthere was some coldness shown. He went ashore to his own house, and hisillness growing worse he died there. Well, he had qualities."
"Aye," I answered, with a vision of the big, bluff, golden-haired man.
"Vicente Pinzon is here; his ship the _Cordera_ yonder. What's the stirnow? The Admiral will go to see Guacanagari?"
That, it seemed, was what it was, and presently came word that JuanLepe should go with him. A body of cavaliers sumptuously clad, some evenwearing shining corselet, greaves and helm, was forming about him whowas himself in a magnificent dress. Besides these were fifty of theplainer sort, and there lacked not crossbow, lance and arquebus. Andthere were banners and music. We were going like an army to be brotherlywith Guacanagari. Father Buil was going also, and his twelve gowned men."Who," I asked Luis, "is the man beside the Admiral? He seems his kin."
"He is. It is his brother, Don Diego. He is a good man, able,too, though not able like the Admiral. They say the other brother,Bartholomew, who is in England or in France, is almost as able. Howdizzily turns the wheel for some of us! Yesterday plain Diego andBartholomew, a would-be churchman and a shipmaster and chart-maker! NowDon Diego--Don Bartholomew! And the two sons watching us off from Cadiz!Pages both of them to the Prince, and pictures to look at! 'Father!' and'Noble father! and 'Forget not your health, who are our Dependance!'"
Waiting for all to start, I yet regarded that huge dazzle upon thebeach, so many landed, so many coming from the ships, the shipsthemselves so great a drift of sea birds! As for those dark folk--whatshould they think of all these breakers-in from heaven? It seemed tome to-day that despite their friendliness shown us here from the first,despite the miracle and the fed eye and ear and the excitement, theyknew afar a pale Consternation.
At last, to drum and trumpet, we passed from shining beach intogreen forest. I found myself for a moment beside Diego Colon--not theAdmiral's brother, but the young Indian so named. Now he was Christianand clothed, and truly the Haitiens stared at him hardly less than atthe Admiral. I greeted him and he me. He tried to speak in Castilian butit was very hard for him, and in a moment we slipped into Indian.
I asked him, "How did you like Spain?"
He looked at me with a remote and childlike eye and began to speak ofhouses and roads and horses and oxen.
A message came from the Admiral at head of column. I went to him. Menlooked at me as I passed them. I was ragged now, grizzle-bearded andwan, and they seemed to say, "Is it so this strange land does them? Butthose first ones were few and we are many, and it does not lie in ourfortune! Gold lies in ours, and return in splendor and happiness." Butsome had more thoughtful eyes and truer sense of wonder.
We found Guacanagari in a new, large, very clean house, and found himlying in a great hammock with his leg bound with cotton web, around himwives and chief men. He sat up to greet the Admiral and with a nobleand affecting air poured forth speech and laid his hand upon his hiddenhurt.
Now I knew, because Guarin had told me so, that that wound was healed.It had given trouble--the Caribs poisoned their darts--but now itwas well. But they are simpler minded than we, this folk, and I readGuacanagari that he must impress the returning gods with his fidelity.He had proved it, and while Juan Lepe was by he did not need thismummery, but he had thought that he might need. So, a big man evidentlyhealthful, he sighed and winced and half closed his eyes as though halfdying still in that old contest when he had stood by the people from thesky. I interpreted his speech, the Admiral already understanding, butnot the surrounding cavaliers. It was a high speech or high assurancethat he had done his highest best.
"Do I not believe that, Guacanagari?" said the Admiral, and thinking ofDiego de Arana and Fray Ignatio and others and of the good hope of LaNavidad, tears came into his eyes.
He sat upon the most honorable block of wood which was brought him andtalked to Guacanagari. Then at his gesture one brought his presents,a mirror, a rich belt, a knife, a pair of castanets. Guacanagari, itseemed, since the sighting of the ships, had made collection on hispart. He gave enough gold to make lustful many an eye looking upon thatscene.
The women brought food and set before the Spaniards in the house.I found Guarin and presently we came to be standing withoutthe entrance--they had no doors; sometimes they had curtains ofcotton--looking upon that strange gathering in the little middle squareof the town. So many Spaniards in the palm shadows, and the womenfeeding them, and Alonso de Ojeda's hand upon the arm of a slender browngirl with a wreath of flowers around her head. Father Buil was withinwith the Admiral, truculently and suspiciously regarding the idolaterwho now had left the hammock and seemed as well of a wound as any there!But here without were eight or ten friars, gathered together under apalm tree, making refection and talking among themselves. One devoutbrother, sitting apart and fasting, told his beads.
Said Guarin, "I have been watching him. He is talking to his_zeme_. --They are all butios?"
"Yes. Most of them are good men."
"What is going to happen here to all my people? Something is overagainst me and my people, I feel it! Even the cacique has fear."
"It is the dark Ignorance and the light Ignorance, the clothed Ignoranceand the naked Ignorance. I feel it too, what you feel. But I feel, OGuarin, that the inner and true Man will not and canno
t take hurt!"
He said, "Do they come for good?"
I answered, "There is much good in their coming. Seen from the mountainbrow, enormous good, I think. In the long run I am fain to think thatall have their market here, you no less than I, Guacanagari no less thanthe Admiral."
"I do not know that," he said. "It seems to me the sunny day is dark."
I said, "In the main all things work together, and in the end is honey."
Out they came from palm-roofed house, the Admiral of the Ocean-Sea andViceroy of what Indies he could find for Spain and Spain could take, andthe Indian king or grandee or princeling. Perceiving that what he didwas appreciated for what it was, Guacanagari had recovered his lameness.The cotton was no longer about his thigh; he moved straight andlightly,--a big, easy Indian.
It was now well on in the afternoon, but he would go with the MightyStranger, the Great Cacique his friend, to see the ships and all thewonders. His was a childlike craving for pure novelty and marvel.
So we went, all of us, back through vast woodland to cerulean water.Water was deep, the _Marigalante_ rode close in, and about and beyondher the _Santa Clara_, the _Cordera_, the _San Juan_, the _Juana_,another _Nina_, the _Beatrix_ and many another fair name. They werebeautiful, the ships on the gay water and about them the boats and thered men's canoes.
We went to the _Marigalante_, I with the Admiral. Dancing across inthe boat there spoke to me Don Diego Colon, born Giacomo Colombo, and Ifound him a sober, able man, with a churchly inclination. Here rose theMarigalante, and now we were upon it, and it was a greater ship thanthe _Santa Maria_, a goodly ship, with goodly gear aboard and goodlySpaniards. Jayme de Marchena felt the tug of blood, of home-coming intohis country.
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