1492

by Mary Johnston

  CHAPTER XLIII

  WE left one of our ships in the Bethlehem and we lost another upon thisdisastrous coast ere we got clear for Jamaica.

  We were sea specters. We had saved our men from the _San Sebastian_as from the _Margarita_. Now all were upon the _Consolacion_ and the_Juana_. Fifty fewer were we than when we had sailed from Cadiz, yet thetwo ships crept over-full. And they were like creatures overcome witheld. Beaten, crazed, falling apart.

  On the Eve of Saint John we came to Jamaica.

  The ships were riddled by the _teredo_. We could not keep afloat to goto Hispaniola. At Santa Gloria we ran them in quiet water side by sideupon the sand. They partly filled, they settled down, only forecastleand poop above the blue mirror. We built shelters upon them and bridgedthe space between. The ocean wanderers were turned into a fort.

  Jamaica, we thanked all the saints, was a friendly land. They brought uscassava and fruit, these Indians; they swarmed about us in their canoes.The gods in trouble, yet still the gods!

  We were forty leagues from Hispaniola, and we had no ship!

  Again there volunteered Diego Mendez. We ourselves had now but oneChristian boat. But there existed canoes a-plenty. Chose one, with sixIndians to row! Leave Diego Mendez with one other Spaniard of his choiceto cross the sea between us and Hispaniola, get to San Domingo, rouseall Christian men, even Don Nicholas de Ovanda, procure a large ship ortwo smaller ones, return with rescue!

  We sent off Diego Mendez with strong farewells and blessings. The vastblue sea and air withdrew and covered from sight the canoe.

  A week--two weeks. Grew out of the azure a single canoe, and approached."Diego Mendez--Diego Mendez!"

  It was he alone, with a tale to tell of storm and putting ashore andcapture after battle by Jamaicans no longer friendly, and of escapealone. But he would go again if so be he might have with him BartholomewFiesco. They went, with heavily paid Indians to row the staunchest canoewe could find. This time the Adelantado with twenty kept them companyalong the shore to end of the island, where the canoe shot forth intoclear sea, and the blue curtain came down between the stranded and thegoing for help. The Adelantado returned to us, and we waited. The weekscrept by.

  Great heat and sickness, and the Indians no longer prompt to bring ussupplies. Sooner or later, each of these dark peoples found a Quibian orCaonabo.

  The most of us determined that Diego Mendez and Fiesco and their canoewere lost. Hispaniola knew nothing of us--nothing, nothing! Suddenly thetwo Porras brothers led a mad mutiny. "Leave these rotting ships--seizethe canoes we need--all of us row or swim to Hispaniola!"

  There were fifty who thought thus. The Admiral withstood them withstrong words, with the reasoning of a master seaman, and the counselnow--his white and long hair, and eld upon him--of Jacob or Isaacor Abraham. But they would not, and they would not, and at last theydeparted from us, taking--but the Admiral gave them freely--the dozencanoes that we had purchased, crowding into these, rowing away withcries from that sea fortress, melancholy indeed, in the blinding light.

  They vanished. The next day fair, the next a mad storm. Two weeks, andnews came of them. They were not nigh to Hispaniola; wrecked, they lostfive men, but got, the rest of them, to land, where they now roved fromvillage to village. Another week, and the Indians who came to us andwhom we kept friendly, related with passionate and eloquent word andgesture evils that that band was working. Pedro Margarite--Roldan--overand over again!

  After much of up and down those mutineers came back to us. They couldnot do without us; they could not get to Hispaniola in Indian canoes.The Admiral received them fatherly.

  No sail--no sail. Long months and no sail. Surely Diego Mendez andBartholomew Fiesco were drowned! Hispaniola, if it thought of us at all,might think us now by Ganges. Or as lost at sea.

  Christopherus Columbus dreamed again, or had a vision again. "I washopeless. I wept alone on a desert shore. My name had faded, and allthat I had done was broken into sand and swept away. I repined, andcried, 'Why is it thus?' Then came a ship not like ours, and One steppedfrom it in light and thunder. 'O man of little faith, I will cover thyeyes of to-day!' He covered them, and I _saw_.--And now, Juan Lepe, Icare not! We will all come Home, whether or no the wave covers us here."

  To mariners and adventurers he said at no time any word of despair. Hesaid, "A ship will come! For if--which the saints forfend--BartholomewFiesco and Diego Mendez have not reached San Domingo, yet come at lastwill some craft to Jamaica! From our island or from Spain. How manytimes since '92 has there been touching here? Of need now it will beoftener and oftener!"

  But still many pined with hope deferred.--And then, out of the blue,arose first Diego de Escobar's small ship, and later the two good shipssent by Don Nicholas de Ovando.

  The Admiral of the Ocean-Sea lodged in the Governor's house in SanDomingo. Who so courteous as Don Nicholas, saving only Don Cristoval?

  Juan Lepe found certain ones and his own eyes to tell him of islandfortunes. Here was Sancho, a bearded man, and yet looked out the youthwho had walked from Fishertown to Palos strand. "Oh, aye! San Domingo'sgrowing! It's to be as great as Seville, with cathedral and fortress andpalace. White men build fast, though not so fast as the Lord!"

  "The Governor?"

  "Oh, he makes things spin! He's hard on the Indians--but then they'vesurely given us trouble!"

  He told of new forts and projected towns and an increasing streamof ships, from Spain to Spain again. "We're here to stay--as long asthere's a rock of gold or anything that can be turned into gold! The oldbad times are over--and that old, first simple joy, too, Doctor!--Maybewe'll all ship for Ciguarre."

  But no. The colony now was firm, with thousands of Spaniards where oncehad stood fivescore. Luis Torres sat with me and he told me of Indianwar,--of Anacaona hanged and Cotubanama hanged, of eighty caciquesburned or hanged, of _peace_ at last. Now the Indians worked the mines,and scraped the sands of every stream, and likewise planted cottonand maize for the conquerors. They were gathered in _repartimentios,encomiendas_, parceled out, so many to every Spaniard with power. Theold word "gods" had gone out of use. "Master" was now the plain andaccurate term.

  The Governor was a shrewd, political, strong man,--not without hisgenerosities to white men. But no dreamer! He put down faction, butthere was now less faction to put down. All had been united in masteringthe Indian, and now with peace the getting of wealth was regularized. Hehad absolutely the ear of King Ferdinand, and help from Spain wheneverhe called for it. Yes, he was fairly liked by the generality. And hadI noticed the growth in cowls and processions? Mother Church was movingin.

  The next day I met again Bartolome de Las Casas.

  September now--and a ship from Spain, bringing the news that the Queenwas ill. There was another who was ill, and that was the Admiral of theOcean-Sea:

  "I must go--and we quarrel here, this Governor-in-my-place and I--I mustgo, rest at La Rabida with you, Doctor, and Fray Juan Perez to help me.Then I must go to court and see the Queen."

  The Adelantado said, "Both you and the Queen will get well. What,brother, your voyages are just begun! But let us sail now for Spain. Ithink well of that."

  And the son Fernando, Yes, yes, let us go home, father, and see Diego!