Rodrigo de Bastidas—Extension of New World Privileges—The Royal Share—Juan de la Cosa—Ships of the Early Discoverers—Coasting Darien—The Terrible Teredo—Wrecked on Española—Spanish Money—Treatment of Bastidas by Ovando—Accused, and Sent to Spain for Trial—He is Immediately Acquitted—Future Career and Character of Bastidas—The Archives of the Indies—The Several Collections of Public Documents in Spain—The Labors of Muñoz and Navarrete—Bibliographical Notices of the Printed Collections of Navarrete, Ternaux-Compans, Salvá and Baranda, and Pacheco and Cárdenas.
The first Spaniard to touch the territory which for the purposes of my work I have taken the liberty to denominate the Pacific States of North America was Rodrigo de Bastidas, a notary of Triana, the gypsy suburb of Seville.
THE NEW WORLD OPENED TO SETTLEMENT.
Although the discoveries of Columbus had been made for Castile, and Castilians regarded their rights to the new lands superior to those of any others, even other inhabitants of Spain; and although at first none might visit the New World save those authorized by Columbus or Fonseca; yet, owing to inadequate returns from heavy expenditures, and the inability of the admiral properly to control colonization in the several parts of the ever-widening area, at the solicitation of several persons desirous of entering the new field of commerce and adventure at their own charge, on the 10th of April, 1495, the sovereigns issued a proclamation granting native-born subjects of Spain permission to settle in Hayti, or Española,[III-1] as I shall continue to call the island, and to make to other parts private voyages of discovery and trade, under royal license. The regulations were that the vessels so sailing should be equipped under royal inspection, that they should depart only from the port of Cádiz, and that they should carry one or two crown officers. The sovereigns retained, without payment, one tenth of the tonnage, and were to receive one tenth of the gross returns. Settlers on Española were to receive grants of land, and one year's provision; of the gold they gathered they were to pay two thirds to the crown; on all other products one tenth. Although this step was taken without consulting Columbus, it was the aim of the sovereigns fully to respect his rights in the matter; therefore, and in lieu of his property in one eighth of all the tonnage, for every seven vessels thus privately adventured he was privileged to despatch one on his own account. The admiral still complaining, such parts of the proclamation as in any wise interfered with his rights were revoked, and his former privileges confirmed, the 2d of June, 1497.[III-2]
Among those to take advantage of this permission, beside Bastidas, was Alonso de Ojeda, who embarked with four vessels from Spain in May, 1499, in company with Juan de la Cosa and Amerigo Vespucci, sailed along the seaboard of South America from Paria and the Pearl Coast, discovered by Columbus, to the gulf of Venezuela, so called because like Venice the native villages were built over the water. At Cape de la Vela, Ojeda left the coast and crossed to Española, whence he was driven off by Roldan at the command of Columbus. He reached Spain in June, 1500; and though his ships were crowded with slaves, after paying expenses there were left but five hundred ducats to divide among fifty-five persons. Sailing in a caravel of only fifty tons, a few days later than Ojeda, were Pedro Alonso Niño and Cristóbal Guerra, who, following the track of Columbus and Ojeda to the Pearl Coast, thence crossed to Margarita, returned to the main-land and coasted Cumaná, and finally returned to Spain, arriving about two months before Ojeda, well laden with gold and pearls. This was the first really profitable voyage, pecuniarily, to the New World. Then there was Vicente Yañez Pinzon, who sailed in four caravels in December, 1499, and shortly after Diego de Lepe, in two vessels, both going to Brazil.
VOYAGE OF BASTIDAS.
Quite exceptional to the ordinary adventurer was Bastidas. He was a man of standing in the community, possessed of some means himself and having wealthy friends; he was intelligent and influential, and withal humane, even Las Casas admitting that no one ever accused him of illtreating the Indians.
The friends of the honest notary, among them Juan de Ledesma, were ready enough to join him, pecuniarily, in a venture to the famous Pearl Coast, as the South American shore of the admiral's third voyage was now called. Obtaining from Fonseca's office a royal license,[III-3] and enlisting the coöperation of Juan de la Cosa, already veteran in western pilotage, Bastidas equipped two caravels,[III-4] embarked at Cádiz in October, 1500, took on board wood, water, meat, and cheese at Gomera, and steering a little north of the admiral's last track, came to a green isle, which he called Isla Verde, and reached the mainland near Venezuela. Coasting westward, he passed Santa Marta, and arrived at the Magdalena River in March, 1501, so naming it on arrival from the day, which was that of the woman's conversion. There he narrowly escaped shipwreck. Continuing, and trading on the way, he found the ports of Zamba and Coronados—the latter so called because the natives wore large crowns—the islands of San Bernardo, Barú, and the Arenas, off Cartagena Bay. Next he saw Fuerte and tenantless Tortuga, touched at the port of Cenú, passed Point Caribana, entered the gulf of Urabá, and saw the farallones, or craggy islet peaks, rising abruptly from the water near the Darien shore. Thus far from Cape de la Vela he had discovered one hundred and fifty leagues[III-5] of new seaboard. And because when the tide was low the water was fresh, he called the place Golfo Dulce. Thus came the Spaniards upon the isthmus that unites the two Americas; and along it they sailed to Point Manzanilla, in which vicinity were El Retrete and Nombre de Dios.[III-6]
GLORIES OF THE ISTHMUS.
It is a balmy beginning, this of these men from Spain, of that intercontinental commerce which is shortly to bring destruction on one side and retrogression on the other; a commerce which shall end only with the next general cataclysm. Threading their way among islands smothered in foliage, which seemed upon the glossy water-surface as floating fragments of the thickly matted verdure of the mainland, listening to notes unfamiliar to their ears, and seeing these strange men and women so like and yet so unlike Spaniards, they find themselves wondering whether they are in the world or out of it. We who so well know our little planet and its ways can scarcely imagine what it was in the darkness to be taken up at Seville, and put down amidst the magic play of light and shade at Darien. Probably now the world was round; yet still it might be fungiform, or crescent-shaped, or amorphous, having a smooth or ragged edge, from which a fearful slipping-off might any moment ensue. All they can know is what they see, and that they cannot half know, for they can scarcely more than half see or feel or smell. Some part of the perpendicular rays of the incandescent sun falling on their toughened skins they can feel; some part of the water that from the surcharged reservoirs of low-lying clouds so frequently and freely pours upon the spot whence it is pumped by this same vertical sun. They can turn their bewildered eyes toward the south and see beyond its clean white border the mainland stretching off in billows of burnished green to the far-away hazy horizon, where like a voluptuous beauty it imprints a kiss upon the blushing sky; they may lie in the gray mist of evening and dream, and dream, their minds—how many removes from the intelligence of the impatient sea and the self-tuned life upon the shore? Or they may drift about in the amber light of a soft vaporous morning without much dreaming; one thing at least to them is real, and that is gold. Without the aid of divine revelation they fathom the difference between the precious solid substance and hollow brass. So do the savages, thinking the latter much the prettier; and thus both sides, each believing the others fools and well cheated, are happy in their traffic. The Spaniards are enchanted less by the lovely garb in which nature everywhere greets them than by the ease with which the golden harvest is gathered. Thus all betokens the most flattering success when a luckless event casts a shadow over their bright fortunes.