Notable Voyagers, From Columbus to Nordenskiold. Frith Henry

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СКАЧАТЬ were great quantities of cotton and many bows and arrows, as also domestic geese and large parrots of blue, green, white, and scarlet plumage.

      Here the Spaniards first met with the anana, or pineapple, with the fragrance and flavour of which they were delighted. In another house was the sternpost of a vessel, probably part of a wreck driven across from the coast of Africa. The voyagers, however, were struck with horror at the sight of what they took to be human bones and skulls, convincing them that the island was inhabited by Caribs, supposed to be cannibals.

      Leaving this spot, Columbus sailed some miles along the coast. The boat landing succeeded in taking and bringing off a boy and several women. From them he understood that this was one of the islands of the Caribs, and that it was their custom to make descents on the neighbouring islands, in order to carry off the youngest and best-looking women, and to murder and eat the men.

      He had just gained this information when it was reported to him that Diego Marques, the captain of one of the caravels, and eight men were missing. They had landed in the morning, and strayed into the woods. The night passed away, and they did not appear. The next morning parties were sent in quest of them, each with a trumpeter to sound calls, and guns were fired from the ships.

      The searching parties found, as they supposed, human limbs suspended from the beams of houses, and some declared that they saw the head of a young man recently killed, while parts of his body were roasting before a fire.

      The natives were seen on shore, looking with wonder at the ships. When the boats approached, they fled to the woods. Several women, however, came off, and some were captured. Columbus ordered that they should be decorated with hawks’ bells and other baubles, and sent on shore to entice off the men. They soon, however, returned to the boats stripped of their ornaments, imploring to be taken on board again. The greater portion of the male inhabitants were, they informed the Spaniards, on a cruise in search of prisoners and booty.

      Anxious to continue his course to Hispaniola, Columbus was much annoyed at the absence of the wanderers. At length Alonzo de Ojeda, a brave young cavalier, offered to go in search of them. Ojeda and his party had great difficulty in making their way through the tangled forest. In vain they sounded their trumpets and shot off their arquebuses. No reply was received, and they returned on board without tidings of the stragglers.

      Several days passed, and the fleet was about to sail, when the missing ones appeared on the beach, their haggard looks showing how much they had suffered.

      They had been lost in the trackless forest, too dense to allow them to see any distance ahead, until they had reached the sea-shore, keeping along which they had made their way to the ships.

      Leaving Guadaloupe on the 10th, Columbus passed Mont Serrat and Antigua, and, the weather becoming boisterous, anchored off an island, to which he gave the name of Santa Cruz. Here a boat was sent on shore, and the crew visited a village, deserted by the men, but secured a few women and boys, most of them captives from other islands. On returning they saw a canoe, the people in which—two of whom were women—were so entranced at the sight of the ships that the boat got close up before they perceived it. The Indians now attempted to escape, but, finding their retreat cut off, they plied their bows and arrows so rapidly that two Spaniards were wounded, the women fighting as fiercely as the men. Though the canoe was upset, the savages still, while swimming, discharged their arrows at their foes. They were, however, captured and brought on board, some of them wounded.

      One of them was evidently their Queen. She was accompanied by her son, a young man strongly made, with a frowning brow and a lion’s face. The hair of these savages was long and coarse, and their eyes were encircled with paint, so as to give them a hideous expression.

      Though captives in chains, they still retained their defiant air. They were afterwards carried prisoners to Spain. One of the Spaniards died of a wound from a poisoned arrow shot by one of the women.

      After this Columbus reached a group of upwards of fifty small islands, to which the name of Saint Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins was given. Continuing his course, he came off a beautiful island, covered with forests and indented with fine havens. It is now known by the name of Porto Rico. This was the island from which most of the captives who had fled to the ships had been taken by the Caribs.

      After running for a whole day along this beautiful coast, the squadron anchored in a bay at the west end, abounding in fish.

      On landing they found an Indian village constructed round a common square like a market-place, with one large and well-built house in it. A wide road led thence to the sea-shore, fenced on either side.

      The whole place had an air of great neatness. Not a human being, however, was to be seen, the natives having concealed themselves.

      After remaining here two days Columbus stood for Hispaniola. This ended his cruise among the Caribbean Islands, the inhabitants of which he described as cannibals, and the most warlike people hitherto met with.

      On the 22nd of November the squadron came off the eastern end of Hispaniola, or Hayti, and the sailor who had died of his wound was here sent on shore to be buried.

      Several natives came off with a message from the cacique of the neighbourhood inviting Columbus to land, and promising great quantities of gold, but, anxious to reach La Navidad, he continued his course. The next place he put into was Las Flechas, where he landed one of the young Indians, who it was supposed had been converted to Christianity, handsomely apparelled and loaded with trinkets. But the youth either forgot his promises or was murdered on account of his finery, as nothing more was heard of him.

      Only one young Indian, who had been sent by Guacanagari, and who, having been to Spain, had been baptised and named after the Admiral’s brother, Diego Colon, remained on board, and he continued always devoted to the Spaniards.

      On the 25th Columbus anchored in the harbour of Monte Cristo, wishing to form a settlement in the neighbourhood of the stream to which he had before given the name of the Golden River.

      Near this, on the green banks of a rivulet, the bodies of a man and boy were found, the former with a cord of Spanish grass about his neck, his arms extended and tied by the wrists to a stake in the form of a cross.

      It was impossible, from the state of decay in which they were found, to ascertain whether they were European or Indians. Painful doubts, however, were raised, and the following day two other bodies were discovered, one of which was evidently the corpse of a white man.

      Gloomy forebodings were now raised as to the fate which might have befallen Arana and his garrison. The frank and fearless conduct, however, of the natives who came off to the ships somewhat allayed the suspicions of Columbus. He sailed on, hoping to find the greater part of the garrison alive, until he arrived off the harbour of La Navidad, late on the evening of the 27th. Two guns were fired, but no reply was received. While waiting in dismal suspense for the morning, about midnight a canoe approached the fleet; but the people in it would not come on board until they perceived the Admiral standing on the deck of his ship, when they came up the side without hesitation. One of them was a cousin of the cacique Guacanagari. He brought a present of two masks ornamented with gold.

      To the inquiries of Columbus as to what had become of the garrison, the Indians replied that several had died of sickness, others had fallen in a quarrel among themselves, and others had removed to different parts of the island, where they had married native wives. He added that Guacanagari had been attacked by the fierce cacique of the Golden Mountains of Cibao, who had wounded him in battle and burnt his village, and that he still remained ill of his wound in a neighbouring hamlet. Columbus was greatly relieved on finding that the cacique and his people still remained faithful, СКАЧАТЬ