The Departure

1493

Eight centuries of a gigantic struggle for supremacy between the

Crescent and the Cross had devastated the fairest provinces of the

Spanish Peninsula. Boabdil, the last of the Moorish kings, had

delivered the keys of Granada into the hands of Queen Isabel, the

proud banner of the united kingdoms of Castile and Aragon floated

triumphant from the walls of the Alhambra, and Providence, as if to

/> recompense Iberian knighthood for turning back the tide of Moslem

conquest, which threatened to overrun the whole of meridional Europe,

had laid a new world, with all its inestimable treasures and millions

of benighted inhabitants, at the feet of the Catholic princes.

Columbus had just returned from his first voyage. He had been scorned

as an adventurer by the courtiers of Lisbon, mocked as a visionary by

the learned priests of the Council in Salamanca, who, with texts from

the Scriptures and quotations from the saints, had tried to convince

him that the world was flat; he had been pointed at by the rabble in

the streets as a madman who maintained that there was a land where the

people walked with their heads down; and, after months of trial, he

had been able to equip his three small craft and collect a crew of

ninety men only by the aid of a royal schedule offering exemption from

punishment for offenses against the laws to all who should join the

expedition.

At last he had sailed amid the murmurs of an incredulous crowd, who

thought him and his companions doomed to certain destruction, and now

he had returned bringing with him the living proofs of what he had

declared to exist beyond that mysterious ocean, and showed to the

astounded people samples of the unknown plants and animals, and of

the gold which he had said would be found there in fabulous

quantities.

It was the proudest moment of the daring navigator's life when, clad

in his purple robe of office, bedecked with the insignia of his rank,

he entered the throne-room of the palace in Barcelona and received

permission to be seated in the royal presence to relate his

experiences. Around the hall stood the grandees of Spain and the

magnates of the Church, as obsequious and attentive to him now as they

had been proud and disdainful when, a hungry wanderer, he had knocked

at the gates of La Rabida to beg bread for his son. It was the acme of

the discoverer's destiny, the realization of his dream of glory, the

well-earned recompense of years of persevering endeavor.

The news of the discovery created universal enthusiasm. When it was

announced that a second expedition was being organized there was no

need of a royal schedule of remission of punishment to criminals to

obtain crews. The Admiral's residence was besieged all day long by the

hidalgos who were anxious to share with him the expected glories

and riches. The cessation of hostilities in Granada had left thousands

of knights, whose only patrimony was their sword, without

occupation - men with iron muscles, inured to hardship and danger,

eager for adventure and conquest.

Then there were the monks and priests, whose religious zeal was

stimulated by the prospect of converting to Christianity the benighted

inhabitants of unknown realms; there were ruined traders, who hoped to

mend their fortunes with the gold to be had, as they thought, for

picking it up; finally, there were the proteges of royalty and of

influential persons at court, who aspired to lucrative places in the

new territories; in short, the Admiral counted among the fifteen

hundred companions of his second expedition individuals of the bluest

blood in Spain.

As for the mariners, men-at-arms, mechanics, attendants, and servants,

they were mostly greedy, vicious, ungovernable, and turbulent

adventurers.

The confiscated property of the Jews, supplemented by a loan and some

extra duties on articles of consumption, provided the funds for the

expedition; a sufficient quantity of provisions was embarked; twenty

Granadian lancers with their spirited Andalusian horses were

accommodated; cuirasses, swords, pikes, crossbows, muskets, powder and

balls were ominously abundant; seed-corn, rice, sugar-cane,

vegetables, etc., were not forgotten; cattle, sheep, goats, swine, and

fowls for stocking the new provinces, provided for future needs; and a

breed of mastiff dogs, originally intended, perhaps, as watch-dogs

only, but which became in a short time the dreaded destroyers of

natives. Finally, Pope Alexander VI, of infamous memory, drew a line

across the map of the world, from pole to pole, and assigned all

the undiscovered lands west of it to Spain, and those east of it to

Portugal, thus arbitrarily dividing the globe between the two powers.

At daybreak, September 25, 1493, seventeen ships, three caracas of one

hundred tons each, two naos, and twelve caravels, sailed from Cadiz

amid the ringing of bells and the enthusiastic Godspeeds of thousands

of spectators. The son of a Genoese wool-carder stood there, the equal

in rank of the noblest hidalgo in Spain, Admiral of the Indian Seas,

Viceroy of all the islands and continents to be discovered, and

one-tenth of all the gold and treasures they contained would be his!

Alas for the evanescence of worldly greatness! All this glory was soon

to be eclipsed. Eight years after that day of triumph he again landed

on the shore of Spain a pale and emaciated prisoner in chains.

It may easily be conceived that the voyage for these fifteen hundred

men, most of whom were unaccustomed to the sea, was not a pleasure

trip.

Fortunately they had fine weather and fair wind till October 26th,

when they experienced their first tropical rain and thunder-storm, and

the Admiral ordered litanies. On November 2d he signaled to the fleet

to shorten sail, and on the morning of the 3d fifteen hundred pairs of

wondering eyes beheld the mountains of an island mysteriously hidden

till then in the bosom of the Atlantic Ocean.

Among the spectators were Bernal Diaz de Pisa, accountant of the

fleet, the first conspirator in America; thirteen Benedictine friars,

with Boil at their head, who, with Moren Pedro de Margarit, the

strategist, respectively represented the religious and military

powers; there was Roldan, another insubordinate, the first alcalde of

the Espanola; there were Alonzo de Ojeda and Guevara, true

knights-errant, who were soon to distinguish themselves: the first by

the capture of the chief Caonabo, the second by his romantic

love-affair with Higuemota, the daughter of the chiefess Anacaona.

There was Adrian Mojica, destined shortly to be hanged on the ramparts

of Fort Concepcion by order of the Viceroy. There was Juan de

Esquivel, the future conqueror of Jamaica; Sebastian Olano, receiver

of the royal share of the gold and other riches that no one doubted to

find; Father Marchena, the Admiral's first protector, friend, and

counselor; the two knight commanders of military orders Gallego and

Arroyo; the fleet's physician, Chanca; the queen's three servants,

Navarro, Pena-soto, and Girau; the pilot, Antonio de Torres, who was

to return to Spain with the Admiral's ship and first despatches.

There was Juan de la Cosa, cartographer, who traced the first map of

the Antilles; there were the father and uncle of Bartolome de las

Casas, the apostle of the Indies; Diego de Penalosa, the first notary

public; Fermin Jedo, the metallurgist, and Villacorta, the mechanical

engineer. Luis de Ariega, afterward famous as the defender of the fort

at Magdalena; Diego Velasquez, the future conqueror of Cuba; Vega,

Abarca, Gil Garcia, Marguez, Maldonado, Beltran and many other doughty

warriors, whose names had been the terror of the Moors during the war

in Granada. Finally, there were Diego Columbus, the Admiral's brother;

and among the men-at-arms, one, destined to play the principal role in

the conquest of Puerto Rico. His name was Juan Ponce, a native of

Santervas or Sanservas de Campos in the kingdom of Leon. He had served

fifteen years in the war with the Moors as page or shield-bearer to

Pedro Nunez de Guzman, knight commander of the order of Calatrava, and

he had joined Columbus like the rest - to seek his fortune in the

western hemisphere.

The Dawn Of Freedom

The Discovery