Christopher Columbus: His Life and His Work

by Charles Kendall Adams

As time passed on, it was found that personal service was the only form of tax that could readily be enforced; and, accordingly, more and more the natives were driven into working the farms of the Spanish settlements. As early as 1496 the fields of the Spaniards had come to be very generally tilled and harvested in this manner. Out of this form of taxation grew the system of repartimientos, or encomiendas, as they were afterward called. In order to enforce the payment of such tributes as were required, four forts in addition to those of Isabella and St. Thomas were built and equipped, at such points as would give most complete command and control of the island.

It requires no very vivid imagination to enable one to understand the desperate situation into which the natives found they had been driven. They had enjoyed a roving independence and that ample leisure which is so dear to all the aboriginal inhabitants of the tropics. This pleasant life was now at an end; the yoke of servitude was fastened upon them, and there was no prospect save in the thraldom of perpetual slavery. They were obliged to bend their bodies under the fervour of a tropical sun, either to raise food for their taskmasters, or to sift the sands of the streams for the shining grains of gold. Peter Martyr relates, with an unspeakable pathos, how their sorrows and sufferings wove themselves into doleful songs and ballads, and how with plaintive tunes and mournful voices they bewailed the servitude into which they had been thrown.

At last they determined to avail themselves of a most desperate remedy. They observed how entirely dependent the Spaniards were upon such food as was supplied by the natives. They now agreed, by a general concert of action, not to cultivate the articles of food, and to destroy those already growing, in order by famine to starve the strangers or drive them from the island. This policy was carried into effect. They abandoned their homes, laid waste the fields, and withdrew to the mountains, where they hoped to subsist on roots and herbs.

Although this policy produced some distress among the Spaniards, still they had the resources of home; and it is certain that the suffering of the natives even from hunger was far greater than was the suffering of the invaders. The Spaniards pursued the Indians from one retreat to another, following them into caverns, pursuing them into thick forests, and driving them up mountain heights, until, worn out with fatigue and hunger, the wretched creatures gave themselves up without conditions to the mercy of their pursuers. After thousands of them had perished miserably through famine, fatigue, disease, and terror, the survivors abandoned all opposition, and bent their necks despairingly to the yoke.

While this pitiful state of affairs was taking place on the island, matters of equal significance and interest were occurring in Spain; and it is now necessary that we turn our attention thither in order to understand the meaning of that disfavour into which Columbus was now rapidly drifting.

Even after the second voyage was undertaken, there were not a few who ventured to declare that Columbus had been cruel and unjust to his subordinates, and that the assurances and promises by means of which the second fleet had been fitted out, were such as never could be fulfilled. The malcontents included persons high in royal favour; and even Fonseca, who, as we have seen, had been made a special minister or secretary for the Indies, looked upon the Admiral with distrust, if not with positive disfavour. There was also about the royal court a nucleus of opposition consisting of members of the old nobility, who saw their own hereditary significance completely eclipsed by this untitled adventurer from abroad. Here, then, was a fertile soil ready to receive any seed of accusation or complaint that might be brought back from the newly discovered lands. Such accusations and complaints were not long withheld.

The provisions taken out on the second voyage were not abundant in amount, and many of them, as we have already seen, were spoiled or injured in the course of the passage. On reaching Hispaniola, and finding that the colony at La Navidad had perished, it became immediately evident that new supplies must be obtained. The Admiral was naturally reluctant to call upon the Government for further assistance. Although such a course was found to be absolutely necessary, the demand was made as small as possible, in the hope that a large portion of the articles needed could be either raised or bought on the island. In the interests of this policy the most rigorous methods were adopted to increase the productive force of the colony. In the building of Isabella, and in the tilling of the fields, many a delicate hand that had never touched an implement of industry was now forced into manual labour. It is not necessary to inquire whether Columbus enforced his rule with impolitic or unnecessary rigour. It is certain, however, that discontents became rife, that these soon grew to formidable proportions and finally ripened into a mutinous determination to throw off the Admiral’s authority. By good fortune, Columbus discovered the mutinous intent before the final outbreak; but the purpose was so widespread, and embraced within its plans so many of the officers high in command, that he felt obliged, not only to put the leaders in irons, but also to transfer all the guns, ammunition, and naval stores to his own ship. Herrera tells us that “this was the first mutiny that occurred in the Indies,” and that “it was the source of all the opposition the Admiral and his successors met withal.”

But the suppression of the mutiny did not lessen the discontents. One of the authorities says: “The better sort were obliged to work, which was as bad as death to them, especially having little to eat.” The Admiral had recourse to force, and this deepened the ill-will. One of the priests, Father Boyle, took up the cause of the malcontents, and was loud in his accusations of cruelty. Herrera tells us that so many persons of distinction died of starvation and sickness that, long after Isabella was abandoned, “so many dreadful cries were heard in that place that people durst not go that way.”

Another cause of discontent was the fact that Columbus placed so great authority in the hands of his brothers. Diego Columbus had attended the Admiral on his second voyage, and on arriving at Hispaniola, was made second in command. The other brother, Bartholomew, reached the colony while the Admiral was exploring Cuba and Jamaica. Far abler and wiser than Diego, Bartholomew was at once, on the return of the Admiral, raised to the rank of Adelantado, or Lieutenant-Governor. Bartholomew is described as “somewhat harsh in his temper, very brave and free, for which some hated him.” The Spanish hidalgos always looked upon Columbus as a foreigner, and the favour he showed his brothers only tended to deepen their discontents and multiply their complaints.

Added to all other sources of dissatisfaction was the most potent fact of all,— that the amount of gold sent home as compared with what had been promised, was doubtful in quality and insignificant in amount. Indeed, the first assayer who accompanied the expedition even declared that the metal discovered was not gold, but only a base imitation.