Rivers of Gold

by Hugh Thomas

  A few days later he turned north to La Española, since his eyes were suffering from a disease that he had apparently caught in Cuba some years before and that had revived. This voyage alone was a remarkable feat of seamanship, for no European had ever before sailed north across the Caribbean.

  Arriving in Santo Domingo on August 31, 1498, Columbus found that, while the ships that he had sent with Hernández Coronel in January had reached the colony, and while the criminals on the first of these were already at work in the gold mines at the center of the island, the other ships, those of Sánchez de Carvajal, had only attained Jaragua, to the west of the island, and with their cargoes ruined. There they had become engaged in an intractable quarrel that had arisen in relation to Bartolomeo Colón, in his brother’s absence.

  The high point of Bartolomeo’s stewardship of La Española had been in 1497, when he agreed to give freeholds (and the services of Indians in the places concerned) by a division of land to the conquistadors. In order to exploit the new goldfields on the island, Bartolomeo established a new town, Bonao, a hispanization of an indigenous word. With royal permission (and Columbus’s backing, by letter)66 he then began to build the city of Santo Domingo on fertile land on the southern shore of La Española as an alternative capital and center of administration in place of La Isabela.67 Most of the Spaniards who had remained in Isabela moved south to this new city, which began to be constructed in the traditional shape of a gridiron. There was to be a church, a town hall, the Governor’s Palace, and a prison, all facing a central square. The men charged to direct this new attempt at “populating” a territory were a Basque, Francisco de Garay, who had been a notary, and Miguel Díaz de Aux, the Aragonese who had come out with Bartolomeo.

  But this change provoked a rebellion headed by the chief magistrate of Isabela’s, Francisco Roldán, an Andalusian from Jaén (Torre de Donjimeno) who, apparently angry that his own new city would lose importance, denounced Bartolomeo as “a hard, sharp man, as cruel as he was greedy.”68

  The real cause of this rebellion remains mysterious. Roldán had been a favorite of the Admiral’s, but overnight he became for him, as well as for his brother, an ingrate.69 What was the source of Roldán’s resentment? Had Bartolomeo perhaps gone too far in reproving Roldán for seducing the wife of the cacique Guarionex? Or had he otherwise stood in the way of an affaire de coeur?70 Roldán later said that Bartolomeo had governed with “such rigor” that “he put the people in such fear as caused him to forfeit all their love.” It seems probable that he was simply hostile to the superior power that Bartolomeo did not hesitate to use over him.

  At all events, this protest occurred when Bartolomeo was in the west of the island, near Jaragua, having left Roldán as his lieutenant, under the authority of his brother Diego. Roldán decided that he wanted to send a ship back to Spain for reinforcements. Diego refused the idea, citing the lack of equipment. Roldán accused Diego and Bartolomeo of limiting his freedom to act and of employing Indians as they wished. Then, when Bartolomeo returned, he imprisoned Barahona, a friend of Roldán’s, for no good reason.

  Seventy or a hundred joined the rebellion.71 Roldán disputed with the Columbus brothers the best use of land and the exploitation of the inhabitants. He seems also to have opposed the idea of exacting tribute from the Indians. Instead of building fortresses, Roldán appears to have thought that it was desirable to seek to work with the natives. Perhaps left to himself he could have become a benign influence.

  Diego Colón sent Roldán with forty men to pacify the Indians near Concepción. Roldán thought that he could make that phantom town his own headquarters and take over the island. But the commander of the fort there, a venerable Catalan, Miguel Ballester, from Tarragona, remained loyal to the Columbuses and told Bartolomeo what was afoot. Bartolomeo went to Concepción, where Roldán confronted him and demanded that he allow the caravel to return home. Bartolomeo said that Roldán knew nothing of ships, nor did his men. Roldán refused to settle their differences and refused, too, to resign as chief magistrate.72

  He then went to Isabela where, finding that indeed he could not launch the ship, he plundered the arsenal and storehouse, and then set off for Jaragua, in the west, which he knew was in the “pleasantest and most fertile part of the island and with the most civilized natives, as well as the best-looking and best-natured women.”73 As he journeyed, he released Indians whom he met from the tributes that they had assumed in their relation with Bartolomeo.

  Eventually, Bartolomeo allowed these Spanish rebels—with their Indian servants and mistresses—to live virtually independently at Jaragua. Roldán secured that “his” Indians paid no tribute to Bartolomeo. Here we see the beginning of a tragedy, for the abolition of these tributes in food combined with the disruption of traditional supplies soon led to famine in the colony.

  Roldán, in his part of the island, also took an important step in establishing a division of land, giving both Indians and property to his followers. But the decision to do this was taken without viceregal, much less royal, consent. Roldán as chief magistrate acted as the controller of his own territory, while he allowed it to be understood that the holdings he allocated would be hereditary.74

  Freed of these difficult colleagues, Bartolomeo busied himself with completing a line of seven forts between the north and the south coast of the island, and he then moved west, looking for brazilwood. He was well received by the cacique Behechio, with Anacoana, the widow of the unfortunate Caonabó. Behechio offered the Spaniards cotton and cassava bread. But some other Indian leaders (such as Guarionex and Mayobenix) were seized, and the former was held as a slave until he could be shipped to Spain. That was a mistake, since the amount of tribute naturally fell even more sharply once there were no caciques to deliver it.

  Bartolomeo succeeded in establishing Santo Domingo, on the south coast, as an administrative capital, beginning what would become an efficient shipyard, and also a store of food. His chain of fortresses, each manned by about ten Spaniards with a specially appointed commander (alcaide) and under the overall control of the adelantado himself, was intended as the guarantee for the tribute.75

  On his return to La Española for the third time, Columbus assumed that power had reverted to him, and he proceeded to try to deal with Roldán. He compromised. He and his brothers had too few trustworthy followers to do anything else. He issued a decree on September 12 promising food and free passage home to all who desired it.76 Then Miguel Ballester reported from Concepción that Roldán and two rebel leaders (Pedro de Riquelme and Adrián de Mújica) were in the neighborhood. Columbus tried to persuade them to make their peace with him, offering them free travel home if they so wished. He also sought to capture Roldán. But his plan did not work. Roldán had most of the arms in the colony, and his strength had been reinforced by recent arrivals. He said that he would only negotiate with Hernández de Carvajal, whom he knew. That approach merely caused the Columbuses to suspect Carvajal, who, like Ballester, now saw no way out other than to treat with the rebels.

  Two months after Columbus’s return, a new flotilla of five caravels went home to Castile from Santo Domingo. To the Admiral’s surprise, three hundred Spaniards took advantage of his offer to go home. Columbus permitted each of them to take back one Indian slave, and some other slaves were also sent. The Queen was not pleased when she heard of this concession: “What power of mine does the Admiral hold to give my vassals to anyone?” she demanded, asking that all the Indian slaves be freed.77 For the issue of the legality of enslavement had still not been decided. The learned men allegedly asked to pronounce on the matter had not reported.

  The returning colonists also took with them letters from Columbus to the monarchs in Spain in which he suggested that 20 million maravedís a year could be obtained in La Española merely by cutting brazilwood. A large-scale trade in Indian slaves should also be profitable. All Europe, he pointed out, was longing for slaves of one sort or another, and though many West Indian slaves had died i
n Spain, a similar mortality had been noticed, to begin with, in respect of Berbers and blacks from Africa and Canary Islanders. Four thousand slaves could probably be sent home a year.78 They could be sold at 1,500 maravedís each. Columbus boasted that in his colony “there is no lack of anything except for wine and settlers.”79

  The Admiral added that

  our people here are such that there is neither a good man nor a bad one who has not two or three Indians to serve him, and dogs to hunt for him and, though it were perhaps better not to mention it, women so pretty that one must wonder at it. With the last of these matters … I am extremely discontented, but I can do nothing about it, nor the habit of eating meat on Saturday [sic; presumably Friday] and other wicked practices that are not good for Christians.80

  Columbus suggested to the Crown the dispatch of friars to “reform the faith in us Christians” and afterwards to convert the Indians. He wanted fifty good men in every new fleet; he would send back in exchange fifty idle and insubordinate ones.81 As a “poor foreigner,” he also suggested that a letrado should be sent, “a person experienced in matters of law” (persona experimentada para la justicia), though whether he thought that this person would assist or replace him was unclear.82

  In the meantime, Hernández de Carvajal was negotiating successfully with Roldán. He had at one point almost persuaded that adventurer to meet with the Columbus brothers. But Roldán’s friends prevented that, and the war of words between them continued. In his new improbable role as the champion of the Indians, Roldán said that Columbus had to release all the Indians whom he had captured. He also wrote to Archbishop Cisneros on October 10, 1498, to accuse the Admiral of wanting to hand over La Española to the Genoese.83 A week later he and his friends sent Columbus a letter blaming Bartolomeo for their actions and asking to be allowed to establish an independent principality.84 Columbus wrote back avoiding the last idea but representing himself as tolerance personified, saying that “anyone can come to me and say exactly what they like.”85

  Eventually, Roldán did meet Columbus after he had secured a safe conduct and, a few weeks later, sent a list of articles of agreement between them. Columbus published an amnesty on the doors of the church at Concepción and gave a safe conduct to all who wanted to go back to Castile. In return for Roldán’s renewed, if purely formal, allegiance to Columbus as the Crown’s representative, it was agreed that he and his friends, the ex-rebels, should be able to settle virtually where they wished. Most of them established themselves in the center of the island, though Roldán himself, named chief magistrate of the whole colony, remained in the west, at Jaragua.

  Almost without being noticed, a new form of land grant was agreed in the wake of Roldán’s rebellion: a given cacique and his people would be asked to serve a specific conquistador. The grant of men would be called an encomienda, as had existed in a different form in old Spain during the reconquest of the land from the Moors. (The difference was that, in medieval Spain, local people were not given away; nor was there any obligation in old Spain for the landowner to provide for the conquered people’s religious instruction.)86 Most of the surviving Indians in the conquered areas would be included in the system. Roldán, it might be said, thus submitted to Columbus on the understanding that he and his friends would receive not only land but also the services of the Indians working on it.87

  But Columbus did not have much time to enjoy the relative peace that he and his friend Sánchez de Carvajal had with such difficulty achieved. New rebellions against him by Spanish settlers broke out. Then, on March 21, 1499, Francisco de Bobadilla, member of the Order of Calatrava, chamberlain of the Catholic Kings, brother of the Queen’s best friend Beatriz, and for a time mayor of the new city of Santa Fe, was named to discover who had risen against the Crown in La Española and to proceed against that individual and others responsible. Columbus himself had, after all, asked for someone knowledgeable of the law, a letrado, to be sent to the Indies. Francisco de Bobadilla was that man.88

  Book Three

  BOBADILLA AND OVANDO

  Philip the Fair greets his bride, Princess Juana, upon her arrival in Flanders in 1498.

  (Illustration credit 3.1)

  14

  “To course o’er better waters …”

  To course o’er better waters now hoists sail the little bark of my wit, leaving behind a sea so cruel.

  Dante, PURGATORIO, I, recalled by Vespucci, 1499, when off Guiana

  Francisco de Bobadilla was an experienced public servant. His connections were excellent. He had been an effective leader in the war against Granada and then mayor of Santa Fe at the moment of the surrender of the Moorish city. His father and grandfather had both served kings of Castile.1 He himself had held numerous public appointments. His nomination to the Indies, therefore, seemed appropriate. To the court it was an indication that the new conquests were to be seen like the old ones. To the friends of Columbus the nomination must have appeared to be a confirmation of the importance of the Admiral’s achievements.2

  The terms of Bobadilla’s appointment did not suggest anything untoward. The royal text read:

  Know that Don Cristóbal Colón, our Admiral of the Ocean Sea, has sent us a report that, while he was absent from the said islands in our court, a number of people who were there, among them a magistrate [Roldán], rose in the said islands against the said Admiral and against the justices who, in our name, have appointments in them, and notwithstanding that they were asked to desist, they did not do so, but rather did they continue the said rebellion and go about the island robbing and doing other damage and carrying out crimes to the disservice of God Our Lord, giving a bad example and being worthy of blame and punishment.… In consequence, we command you to go to the said islands and the said mainland of the Indies [sic], and you will find out who the people were who rose against the Admiral and our magistrates, and you should seize them and confiscate their goods, and when they have been made prisoners, you should proceed against them.3

  That should have seemed clear enough. Columbus, it is true, was not referred to as Viceroy or as Governor, just as Admiral; but the decree accepted that what he had discovered was the “Indies,” and the term continued to be used both officially and unofficially. Nor did there seem any doubt in the mind of the Crown that the criminals were Roldán and his friends, not Bartolomeo Colón and his.

  But later documents altered Bobadilla’s orders. For example, on May 21, 1499, a new instruction was issued that did not mention Columbus but merely stated that Bobadilla would henceforth direct the government of the New World. All fortresses, arms, horses, ships, and even houses were to be made over to the new Governor.4 A letter of May 26, 1499, from the Catholic Kings told Columbus that Bobadilla had instructions from them to which they asked him to listen.5

  Thus the age of Columbus in La Española was over. Martyr thought that the monarchs, wearied by so many complaints and because so little gold had hitherto been found, had decided to name someone new as governor to establish order.6 Perhaps the fact that Columbus continued to send back slaves against the Queen’s wishes was a reason for his replacement;7 five ships bringing another installment of six hundred slaves reached Seville that same May.8 Part of the explanation may be that a wave of xenophobia was sweeping through the court, and most evils were blamed on foreigners.9 This mood had a special effect in the Canaries, where it was laid down that no foreigner should be able to own property worth more than 500,000 maravedís.10 (The Genoese negotiated a compromise excluding them from this rule, but they continued to feel threatened.) Father Bernáldez reported rumors (in Seville) that Columbus was keeping for himself all the gold that he found, and repeated the story that he was thinking of giving away the island of La Española to his fellow Genoese.11

  There was, however, an interminable delay between the issue of instructions to Bobadilla and his departure from Spain. In part, that was because the ever more powerful Archbishop of Toledo, Jiménez de Cisneros, still the Queen’s confessor, wan
ted to ensure the evangelical role of Spain in the Indies. With that in mind, he sought friars who would accompany Bobadilla and, in the end, arranged the passage of one Benedictine (Fray Alonso de Viso) and five Franciscans.12 The mission of these men would be to convert the infidels and to build churches, but they were also to work as officials for Bobadilla. The most interesting of this group was “El Abulense,” Fray Francisco Ruiz, future bishop of Ávila, then aged about twenty-three; he was the son of a seller of olive oil in Toledo and had first been a chorister in that city, then Cisneros’s secretary, and a professor at the Franciscan convent at Alcalá. On Cisneros’s recommendation he was asked by Queen Isabel to find out what was really happening in the New World under Columbus.13

  Another reason for the delay of Bobadilla in Seville was that the King was busy in the mountains south of Granada, the Alpujarras, directing operations against Moorish rebels—Muslims who were refusing to accept the choice offered to them either to convert to Christianity or to leave the country. Neither Jiménez de Cisneros, who claimed to have converted no less than four thousand Moors in Granada in 1499, nor the King could have had much time to deal with Indian matters.

  Cisneros was now the most influential man in the country. Martyr again commented: “This man [that is, Cisneros] is he who through his advice makes everything happen in Spain. Through his dynamism and his talent, through his gravity and his wisdom, through outdoing in holiness all the cenobites, hermits, and anchorites, he has much more prestige with the monarchs than anyone has had before. They judge it a sin to contradict his counsel, for they do not believe what he says comes from the mouth of a mere man.…”14