In the general assembly convoked shortly afterwards, the colonists unanimously decided to send an envoy to Hispaniola to ask for reinforcements and for the appointment of a judge. The same envoy would go on to Spain where he would first explain to the Admiral and his officers and afterwards to the King, all that had happened, and would seek to persuade his Majesty to send the thousand soldiers the son of Comogre had declared would be necessary for the expedition across the mountains to the South Sea. Vasco Nuñez sought to be chosen for this mission, but his companions refused him their votes, and his adherents would not allow him to go; not only because they would have felt themselves abandoned, but because they suspected that once out of it, Vasco would not return to such a furnace of calamities, following the example of Valdivia and Zamudio, whom they had sent off in the month of January, and who, they thought, had no intention of returning. In this latter they were wrong, as we shall show in the proper place, for those men were dead.
After several ballotings without result, the colonists finally chose a certain Juan Quevedo, a serious man of mature age, who was agent of the royal treasury in Darien. They had full confidence that Quevedo would conduct this business successfully, and they counted on his return because he had brought his wife with him to the new world and was leaving her in the colony as a pledge. As soon as Quevedo was elected, several opinions concerning an associate for him were expressed. Some people said it was risky to trust such an important affair to one man; not that they mistrusted Quevedo, but human life is uncertain, particularly if one considers that people accustomed to a climate near the equator would be exposed on returning northwards to frequent changes of climate and food. It was necessary, therefore, to provide an associate for Quevedo, so that, if one died the other might survive and if both escaped death, the King would place more confidence in their dual report. Much time was spent in debating this point, and finally they decided to choose Roderigo Colmenares, whose name I have frequently mentioned. He was a man of large experience; in his youth he had travelled by land and sea over all Europe, and he had taken part in the Italian wars against the French. What decided the colonists to choose Colmenares was the fact that, if he left, they could count on his return, because he had purchased properties in Darien and had spent large sums in planting. He hoped to sell his crops as they stood, and to obtain the gold of his companions in exchange. He therefore left the care of his estates to a citizen of Madrid, a certain Alonzo Nuñez, who was his comrade. This man was a judge, and had almost been chosen by the colonists as an envoy in place of his friend Colmenares; and indeed he would have been elected but that one of his companions explained that he had a wife at Madrid. It was feared, therefore, that the tears of his wife might prevent him from ever returning, so Colmenares, being free, was chosen as the associate of Quevedo. There being no larger ship at their disposal, both men sailed on a brigantine, the fourth day of the calends of November in the year of grace 1512.
During their voyage they were buffeted by many tempests, and were finally dashed upon the western coast of that large island which for a long time was thought to be a continent, and which in my First Decade I explained was called Cuba. They were reduced to the most extreme want, for three months had elapsed since they left Darien. They were, therefore, forced to land to seek some assistance from the islanders, and by chance they approached on that side of the island where Valdivia had also been driven ashore by tempests. Ah! unhappy creatures! you colonists of Darien, who await the return of Valdivia to assuage your sufferings. Hardly had he landed before he and his companions were massacred by the Cubans, the caravel broken to pieces and left upon the shore. Upon beholding some planks of that caravel half buried in the sand, the envoys bewailed the death of Valdivia and his companions. They found no bodies, for these had either been thrown into the sea, or had served as food for the cannibals, for these latter frequently made raids in Cuba in order to procure human flesh. Two islanders who had been captured, related the death of Valdivia, which had been brought about by the love of gold. These islanders confessed that, having learned from the talk of one of Valdivia's companions that he had gold, they had plotted to assassinate him because they too loved gold necklaces.
Horrified by this catastrophe, and feeling themselves unable to avenge their companions the Spaniards decided to fly from that barbarous land and the monstrous cruelty of those savages. They therefore continued their voyage, stunned by the massacre of their companions and suffering severely from want. After leaving the southern coast of Cuba behind them, a thousand untoward events still further delayed them. They learned that Hojeda had also landed and that he had been driven by storms upon these coasts, where he led a wretched existence. He endured a thousand annoyances and a thousand different kinds of sufferings. After having suffered the loss of his companions or witnessed them gasping from hunger, he had been carried to Hispaniola almost alone.
He arrived there hardly alive, and died from the effects of the wound he had received from the natives of Uraba. Enciso, the judge elect, had sailed along this same coast, but with better fortune, for he had had favourable weather.
He himself told me these things at Court, and he added that the natives of Cuba had received him kindly, especially the people of a certain cacique called El Comendador [the Commander]. When this chief was about to be baptised by some Christians who were passing through, he asked them how the governor of the neighbouring island of Hispaniola was called, and he was answered that he was called El Comendador.[1] The governor of that island was at that period, an illustrious knight of the Order of Calatrava, and the knights of that Order take the title of Commander. The cacique promptly declared that he wished to be called El Comendador; and he it was who had given hospitality to Enciso, when he landed, and had supplied all his wants.
[Note 1: Don Nicholas de Ovando, Comendador de Lares, and later Grand Master of the Order of Calatrava.]
According to Enciso, now is the time, Most Holy Father from whom we receive our religion and our beliefs, to preach to the islanders. An unknown sailor,[2] who was ill, had been left by some Spaniards who were coasting the length of Cuba, with the cacique El Comendador, and this sailor was very kindly received by the cacique and his people. When he recovered his health, he frequently served the cacique as lieutenant in his expeditions, for the islanders are often at war one with another; and El Comendador was always victorious. The sailor was an ignorant creature, but a man of good heart, who cultivated a peculiar devotion for the Blessed Virgin, Mother of God. He even carried about him, as constantly as his clothes, a picture of the Blessed Virgin, very well painted on paper, and he declared to El Comendador that it was because of it that he was always victorious. He also persuaded the latter to abandon the zemes the people adored, because he declared that these nocturnal goblins were the enemies of souls, and he urged the cacique to choose for his patron the Virgin Mother of God, if he desired all his undertakings, both in peace and in war, to succeed. The Virgin Mother of God was never deaf to the invocation of her holy name by a pure heart. The sailor obtained a ready hearing from these naked islanders. Upon the request of the cacique he gave him the image of the Virgin, and consecrated a church and an altar to it. The zemes, whom their ancestors had worshipped were abandoned. These zemes, Most Holy Father, are the idols made out of cotton, of which I have spoken at length in the tenth book of my First Decade. Following the instructions of the sailor, the cacique El Comendador and all his people of both sexes went each day at sunset to the chapel dedicated to the Virgin. Entering, they knelt, and reverently bowing their heads and joining their hands they saluted the image by repeated invocations, Ave Maria, Ave Maria; for there were very few who had learnt the whole prayer.
[Note 2: Las Casas tells an identical story concerning Alonso de Hojeda, who gave an image of the Blessed Virgin to a cacique of Cueyba. During the campaign which ended in the conquest of Cuba, Las Casas offered to trade a Flemish statue for the one Hojeda had left there, but the cacique refused, and taking his image, he fled into the woods, lest he should be forced to exchange. The two stories, doubtless, refer to the same incident, though it seems strange that Peter Martyr should not have identified Hojeda as the "unknown sailor." See Las Casas, Hist. de las Indias, tom, iv., cap. xix.: B. Las Casas, his Life, his Apostolate, and his Writings, cap iv.]
When Enciso and his companions landed there, the Indians took them by the hands and joyfully led them to the chapel, declaring that they were going to show them something wonderful. They pointed to the holy image surrounded, as though with a garland, by dishes full of food and drink. They offered these presents to the image just as they formerly did in their own religion to the zemes. They say that by such offerings they provide for the image in case it should be hungry, for they believe that it might suffer from hunger.