Part 4 (1/2)

'd.a.m.ned little.' As soon as he uttered the words he drew back and looked apprehensively at Ocampo, remembering that some authorities considered the word d.a.m.n a serious blasphemy punishable in New Spain by a visit to the chambers of the Inquisition, but Ocampo as a former soldier did not. Swallowing, Cespedes resumed: 'In fairness to Coln, there was very little we could have given them, but when we sailed away, good houses had not yet been built, we couldn't give them much powder for the few guns we could spare, not much lead for bullets, and no food.'

'None?'

'Maybe one half-barrel of flour, some sc.r.a.ps of pork.' Cespedes shook his head, then added brightly: 'But my friend from Cadiz, the one who traded with me because he wanted to stay, said: ”We can fish and hunt game and depend on help from the natives.” '

'There were natives?'

'Many. And since we'd had good relations with them, we supposed the thirty-nine would depend on them for a.s.sistance.'

'But General Coln did leave the men in a kind of settlement? I mean, there were paths and latrines and places to sleep?'

'Oh yes! It was the beginnings of a town. After all, it did have a name, La Navidad.'

'But no real houses? No women?'

Cespedes laughed nervously: 'The men thought of that. A year, maybe two years with no women. My friend from Cadiz said: ”Maybe we'll take the women we need from the natives.” '

'When you sailed, you ordinary sailors, did you expect the thirty-nine to survive?'

'Yes! Just as we parted I loaned my friend my good knife. ”I'll be back to claim it,” I told him. But as I said, he died and I didn't.' He dropped his head, brought his hands to his lips, and stared at Ocampo, then whispered: 'The natives killed them all, but even though I don't like Coln, I don't think you can blame him for that.'

'How did you get back to Espaola?'

'On the next trip with Coln in 1493. He was an admiral by then. He didn't like me, for I reminded him that he had stolen my prize, but he knew me for a good sailor. And what a difference between the two trips! First time, three little s.h.i.+ps, only a few men, feeling our way across an unknown ocean and terrified we'd fall off the edge of the world. Second trip, near two dozen fine s.h.i.+ps, hundred of men, swift pa.s.sage across a friendly ocean, and as soon as we pa.s.sed through that chain of islands guarding the eastern edge of this inner sea we recognized the beauty of what the men were beginning to call ”our Spanish lake.” It was becoming home to us, the more so when we spotted this island we already knew. Our hearts expanded and it should have been a triumph. But when we reached La Navidad we found nothin' ... houses torn down ... skeletons where the natives had attacked. I found one body that could have been my friend, head severed. And I said a prayer as I buried it: ”You gave your life for me. I'll live on this island and make it a decent place in your honor,” and here I am.'

One important question remained, but it was Cespedes who brought it up: 'Sir, will you give sailors like me the money the admiral stole from us?'

'You still believe he did that?'

'Not only from me, from all those poor men who died at La Navidad.' When he saw Ocampo glaring at him for repeating such rumors, he ended lamely: 'Maybe he felt their money would be safer that way. Besides, what could they have used it for in a place like Navidad?'

An old sailor, a widow and an abandoned son each came forward to relate how men had been paid only a portion of their wages or none at all, when it was clear that funds were available for this purpose.

A local resident named Alonso Peraza, whose manner and speech indicated that he had profited from the education his priest in Salamanca had given him, offered a partial explanation of why Coln may have acted in this miserly way: 'The admiral was insane about money. He said the king and queen wouldn't pay him what they promised. He said they owed him a tenth, an eighth and a third.'

'What do those terms mean? I'm unfamiliar with them.'

'When Coln returned from his first trip it was some time before he was recognized as a great hero. Then King Ferdinand and his Queen Isabella agreed to a doc.u.ment written on parchment and sealed by notaries which formalized a preposterous proposal, put forth by Coln, that he receive in perpetuity one-tenth of all the wealth generated by the new lands he discovered.'

'In that doc.u.ment, did perpetuity mean what I think it does?'

'Yes, for Coln during his lifetime, and his heirs forever after.'

'A fortune, eh?'

And Peraza replied: 'No s.h.i.+ps large enough to carry it home.' He then explained that the eighth referred to the portion of wealth that might be generated during the voyages by bartering trade goods with the local settlers, whoever they might be. 'That made sense,' Peraza said, 'but Coln found it difficult to collect his share because accounts were too complex to keep.'

'What was left?' Ocampo asked sardonically. 'A third part of anything is apt to be substantial.'

Peraza broke into disrespectful laughter: 'Coln seriously demanded the right to levy a tax in that amount on every business transaction carried out in the Indies. Yes, one-third of everything.'

Ocampo leaned back and studied his thin fingers as he made a calculation: 'Those three taken together-tenth, eighth, third-would have added up to more than half the total wealth developed in the entire New World. It would have made him the richest man in Christendom, and no king could permit that.' Leaning forward, he asked: 'Yet you say he demanded it?'

'He did, and his heirs still press those ridiculous claims. They seek to be richer than the king.'

Ocampo's attention now began to focus on one of the most serious charges against the admiral. The testifier who broached the subject was an ordinary sailor, one Salvador Soriano, who had served on the famous Nia and returned to Santo Domingo to live out his life: 'It's a miracle I'm here to answer your questions, Excellency.'

'I'm not really an excellency, you know. What do you wish to tell me?'

'We called him Coln the Killer because when he was viceroy in charge of this island he had a pa.s.sion for ordering men to be hanged. There were gibbets all over the place ... six ... eight, all bearing fruit, men dancing without their toes touching the ground. And the hangings would have continued if Special Emissary Bobadilla had not had the courage to halt them.'

'What were the charges? Mutiny?'

'Anything that irritated him at the moment. Hiding gold from the appointed collector. Speaking poorly about the admiral or one of his family. He kept going back and forth to Spain and bringing more and more of his family and they were sacred here. Two men were hanged for using a fis.h.i.+ng boat without permission.'

'That sounds incredible,' Ocampo said, but the man surprised him by saying with great force: 'I was sentenced to be hanged, with my nephew Bartolomeo, and for what? Eating fruit that was reserved for some other purpose and then arguing with one of Coln's men about it when we were reprimanded. Mutiny, he called that mutiny, and we were led to the gallows.'

'I see you're still here. Did the admiral relent?'

'Not him. He hanged a score of us. Fearful temper.'

'Then who saved you?'

'Bobadilla. You might say he saved the whole island. Because the way Coln was going, there'd have been revolution for sure.'

Since this was the fourth time Ocampo had heard the name Bobadilla, the first having been when the king himself referred to him, it became clear that he must fix firmly in his mind who this shadowy figure Bobadilla was, for regardless in what direction Ocampo turned, he found himself face-to-face with this elusive man who seemed to have played a major role in Coln's life. Setting aside an entire afternoon, he sat with his scribes and asked: 'Now what do we know about this Bobadilla? The king told me several things. Bobadilla was Queen Isabella's choice, not his. He was a man of distinguished background, overly fat, an errant coward.'

'Doesn't sound appealing,' one of the scribes remarked.

'Very intelligent. And most important, he arrived on this island to track down Coln's misbehavior armed with five different letters empowering him in ways far beyond my commission. In fact, the king told me: ”Because Bobadilla abused his five letters, I'm giving you only one.” '

'You mean you have no power to arrest? To force a man to give evidence? The rack if necessary?'

'I do not have such powers, nor would I want them.' He concluded the meeting with an order: 'Let us direct all our attention to learning as much about Bobadilla as possible, for if we first understand him, we may understand Coln.'

Two days later the senior scribe informed him: 'I've found a man whose life was saved by Bobadilla,' and Ocampo said: 'Fetch him.' Within minutes one Elpidio Daz, sailor from Huelva, was seated uneasily in the tilted chair eager to testify: 'Bobadilla was a gentleman, a splendid man. He knew how to govern. Stepped off the s.h.i.+p that brought him from Spain, first thing he saw on the island was me and my cousin waiting to be hanged, rope ready and all. And he cried in a loud voice, I can still hear the words, believe me: ”Release those men!” Coln's people were furious. Refused to obey. And I thought: Here we go. But Bobadilla whipped out some papers which showed he'd been sent by the king to clean up the mess on Espaola, and the hangings were stopped.'

'You say hangings? Plural?'

'There was a score of condemned like me waiting in this area or that. In the little town of Xaragua far west of here, sixteen of us prisoners were held in a deep well, all sentenced to be hanged. It was Bobadilla who saved our lives: ”Get those men out of there. Set them all free.” '

'You have a high opinion of him?'

'The finest. A man of common sense and order.'

Ocampo began to acquire a balanced a.s.sessment of a man whom neither he nor the king liked. He might have been cowardly in battle, but he was certainly not afraid to confront ugly messes. He seemed to have exercised solid judgment and was certainly not a cruel man. He was honest, so far as could be seen. But there the list of positive aspects stopped, for again and again he emerged from the testimony as an obese, gluttonous, self-important functionary who used his five royal letters in an obscene way, like a cat using her claws to play with a mouse.

Supporters of Coln, and there were many, especially those who owed their jobs to the admiral, excoriated Bobadilla as an unfeeling, vengeful man who delighted in bringing the great explorer down, but more sober citizens a.s.sured Ocampo that Bobadilla had done a masterful job in a humane way, and it was almost impossible to discern who was telling the truth. And so the questioning about both Coln and Bobadilla continued.

In the late afternoons, when the interrogations ended, Ocampo liked to leave his office and take an evening walk along the beautiful waterfront of Santo Domingo; he preferred to walk three paces in the lead, with his two scribes trailing behind him. In this way, the three Spaniards from the homeland formed an elegant trio: Ocampo in front, tall and rigidly erect, with his conspicuous eye patch and scar attesting to his valor, the two scribes dressed in black marching behind in orderly fas.h.i.+on, and all comporting themselves like grandees from earlier centuries.