[749] Irving, p. 60.
[750] Many of the documents published by Navarette, are preserved in the great collection at Simancas, from which Mr. Froude has drawn so large a portion of the documents for his history.—Journal of Columbus, Navarette Collection, book i. p. 19.
[751] Mr. Major, in an able article in the Journ. of the Roy. Geograph. Soc. for 1871, entitled “The Landfall of Columbus,” has examined the whole question as to the island on which he first landed on October 12, 1492, and has shown that Humboldt, Washington Irving, and himself (in his edition for the Hakluyt Society of the “Select Letters of Columbus”) have been in error, and that the island called by the Indians Guanahani is unquestionably that now called “Watling Island.”
[752] Journal of Columbus, Navarrete Coll.
[753] Major, “Select Letters of Columbus,” p. 7.
CHAPTER XVII.
The state of the West India Islands when discovered—Wreck of one of the vessels of the expedition—A colony established—Columbus sets sail for Spain, 4th January, 1493—Arrives at St. Mary’s, 18th February, and in the Tagus a few days afterwards—Re-enters, with his ship, the harbour of Palos, 15th March—Great rejoicings—He proceeds to Seville and Barcelona—Orders for a fresh expedition—Its extent, and departure, 25th Sept., 1493—Reaches Dominica, 2nd Nov., 1493, and Santa Cruz, 14th Nov.—Arrives at Hayti, 22nd Nov.—Founds a fresh colony at Hispaniola or Hayti—Sufferings of the colonists, and disappointment of Columbus—His sanguine expectations for the future—Threatened mutiny among the colonists—Columbus proceeds on further explorations—Discovery of the island of Jamaica—Surveys Cuba, and returns to Isabella—Arrival of Bartholomew Columbus—Intrigues at home—Commission of inquiry despatched to Hayti—Columbus sets sail for Europe, 10th March, 1496—Arrives at Cadiz, 11th June, 1496—Re-visits the West, May, 1498—Reaches Trinidad, 31st July—Discovers Tobago, Granada, and other islands, reaching Hispaniola, 19th August—Finds everything in disorder—Makes a tour of inspection, but is arrested, and sent a prisoner to Spain—Arrives at Cadiz, Nov. 1500, and is restored to the royal favour—A fleet sails for the colony with Ovando, Feb. 1502, and two months afterwards (9th May) Columbus follows, and reaches St. Domingo, 29th June—Discovers the island of Guanaga 30th July—Trading canoe—Her cargo—Prosecutes his researches to the South—Reaches Cape Honduras—Discovers and explores the Mosquito coast—Puerto Bello—Forms a settlement on the river Belem, 6th Feb., 1503—Anchors at Jamaica, June 1503, and Dominica, 13th August of that year—Sails for Spain, 12th September, which he reaches 7th Nov., 1504—His sufferings and death, 20th May, 1506.
The state of the West India Islands when discovered.
Philosophers and philanthropists may ask with some show of reason when they read the history of the West Indies during the last three hundred years, and compare the state of its inhabitants with that in which Columbus found them, if civilization has in all cases increased the happiness of the human race. “Their habitations,” remarks Washington Irving, referring to the aborigines, “were very simple, being in the form of a pavilion, or high circular tent, constructed of branches of trees, of reeds, and palm. They were kept very clean and neat, and sheltered under beautiful and spreading trees. For beds they had nets of cotton extended from two parts, which they called hamacs, a name since adopted into universal use among seamen.”[754] Their groves were more beautiful than ever Columbus had anywhere else beheld; and the whole country, according to his description of it, was as fresh and green as the richest and most verdant valleys of Andalusia during the month of May, when the peninsula is adorned in its gayest colours. Amply supplied with springs and streams of cool and sweet water, and fruits of the richest description; with abundance of herbs of various kind; with animal food reared on the land where they lived, and abundant fish in the seas with which they were surrounded, what more could the original inhabitants of the West India Islands desire? “Here,” says Columbus in his journal, “are large lakes, with groves about them marvellous in beauty and in richness. The singing of the birds is such, that it seems as if one would never desire to depart hence. There are flocks of parrots which obscure the sun, and other birds large and small, of so many kinds, and so different from ours, that it is wonderful; and besides, there are trees of a thousand species, each having its particular fruit, and all of marvellous flavour.” These pictures may have been in some respects over-coloured by Columbus and his crew, after their arduous and weary voyage: but contemporary writers confirm the original beauty of the West India Islands; nor are there to this day many islands which look more beautiful from the sea than those which were first made known to the world by Christopher Columbus.[755] But even if the descriptions of the happiness of the natives is in some respects overdrawn, their position, under the patriarchal rule of their native caciques, with few wants and little of fear or care, compares favourably with the state of these islands at any period since they came under the rule of the highly civilized nations of Europe. Nor were these poor people, though living in a state of nature, without some of the consolations of religion. “They confess,” remarks Peter Martyr, “the soul to be immortal, and having put off the bodily clothing, they imagine it goeth forth to the woods and the mountains, and that it liveth there perpetually in caves.”
Throughout the whole time Columbus was engaged in discovering and surveying these islands, he was under the conviction—a conviction which he carried to his grave—that they formed part of Asia, or rather of India, the name by which the greater part of that continent was then known, and that they were the islands spoken of by Marco Polo, as lying opposite Cathay in the Chinese Sea. Indeed, the great navigator construed everything he saw in harmony with the accounts of those opulent regions. When the natives spoke of enemies to the north-west, he concluded these to be people from the mainland of Asia, the subjects of the great Khan of Tatary, who, the Venetian traveller stated, were wont to make war on the islands and to enslave their inhabitants. When they described the country to the south as abounding in gold, he felt convinced that this must refer to the famous island of Zipango, of the magnificent capital of which Marco Polo had given such a glowing description. The fine gold trinkets the natives possessed confirmed their reports and his own impressions, whetted the avarice of the Spaniards, and made a search for the great Khan and his golden islands the chief results of his expedition.