Part 7 (2/2)
Although famished, and so weak that he could not stand, it was discovered that he had not received a single wound; but on his s.h.i.+eld were seen the dents made by more than three hundred arrows. His rescue had scarcely been effected before the s.h.i.+ps of his deadly rival, Nicuesa, sailed into the harbor; but, instead of taking advantage of Ojeda's defenceless condition, the high-minded hidalgo offered to join with him in an attack upon the savages, in order to avenge his defeat.
Combining their forces, the two erstwhile enemies fell upon the Indians while they were asleep, slaughtered an immense number, and then, after plundering their dwellings set them on fire.
Thus the unfortunate pilot and his comrades were avenged, and the s.h.i.+ps sailed on, leaving behind hundreds of mangled corpses and huts reduced to ashes. It was not strange, then, that the surviving savages should ceaselessly attack the settlement soon after founded by Ojeda on their coast, and with such persistency that finally it had to be abandoned. It was in one of these attacks that Ojeda received his first wound. He had hitherto considered himself invulnerable, but, falling into an Indian ambush, a poisoned arrow pierced his thigh.
After wrenching it from the wound, he ordered his surgeon, on pain of death for refusal, to burn out the venom with red-hot irons, and by this means, though his life was saved, he received injuries that made him permanently lame.
At last conditions in the settlement became so desperate that Ojeda seized the occasion of a pirate s.h.i.+p touching there to depart for Hispaniola in search of a.s.sistance. Leaving his company in charge of Francisco Pizarro--who in this manner began his conquering career--he embarked in the pirate s.h.i.+p, but had hardly cleared the harbor before he began a fierce quarrel with the commander, Talavera, by whose orders he was seized and fettered. Even when chained to the deck, the undaunted cavalier dared Talavera and his crew to fight him, two at a time, and when they refused denounced them all as cowards.
A violent gale arose, with the result that their s.h.i.+p was wrecked on the southern coast of Cuba. Escaping to sh.o.r.e, they endured terrible sufferings for weeks, wandering half famished in forests and through swamps, until finally rescued by a tribe of Indians who had not heard of Spanish atrocities and who gave them freely all the provisions they needed. A canoe was despatched to Jamaica with the tidings of disaster, and in the end Ojeda reached Hispaniola, where he had the satisfaction of seeing his late companions hung for their crimes, and where he pa.s.sed the remainder of his life in poverty. He died in 1515, so poor, says Bishop Las Casas, ”that he did not leave money enough to provide for his interment, and so broken in spirit that, with his last breath, he entreated his body might be buried in the monastery of San Francisco [the ruins of which may still be seen in Santo Domingo], just at the portal, in humble expiation of his past pride, 'that every one who entered might tread upon his grave.'”
XI
ON THE COAST OF BRAZIL
1501-1502
The New World, subsequently to be called America, did not reveal itself to navigators during the lifetime of any one of those first engaged in its discovery. Its islands and coast-lines were brought to view one by one, and bit by bit, so that many years elapsed between the voyage of Columbus, in 1492, and that which finally enabled the map-makers to complete the outlines of the continents. It is interesting and instructive to trace the movements of the explorers, and note how, after the initial work of Columbus, they emulate one another in pus.h.i.+ng farther and farther into the great ocean of darkness, their voyages overlapping at times, but ever extending, until at last the islands of the West Indies are all revealed and the vast southern continent is circ.u.mnavigated.
Columbus, in his first three voyages, brought to view most of those islands now known as the Antilles, and on his fourth and last he skirted the eastern coast of Central America; but he left gaps here and there which it took many years to fill. On his third voyage, in 1498, he discovered the island of Trinidad and the pearl islands off the coast of c.u.mana; but he did not proceed, as he should have done, along the coast of Terra Firma, and hence Ojeda, Vespucci, and La Cosa slipped in, guided by the very chart made by him and so treacherously furnished them by Fonseca.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ROUTES OF THE DISCOVERERS]
While doubts may be entertained as to the ”first” voyage of Vespucci, none can exist as to that made by him in 1499-1500, as we have the sworn testimony to that effect by Ojeda himself, who, when called to give the same, in the great suit brought by Diego Columbus against the crown, declared that he had with him on that voyage both La Cosa and the Florentine. This testimony was given in 1513, a year after Vespucci's death, and its object was to show that the coast of Terra Firma, so called, had been first seen by Columbus. By establis.h.i.+ng the fact of his priority, it disposed of any claim Vespucci or his friends may have made, as he and Ojeda were sailing with the track-chart of Columbus as their guide. Thus they picked up the route pursued by the Admiral, and extended it several degrees, Bastidas and La Cosa, the next year, carrying it still farther.
In December, 1499, in June of which year Ojeda and Vespucci had set out together, Vicente Pinzon sailed along the Brazilian coast to a point eight degrees south of the equinoctial line. He returned to Spain in September, 1500, and in April of that year Pedro Alvarez Cabral, in command of a Portuguese fleet bound for the Spice Islands, over the route discovered by Da Gama, accidentally came in sight of land on the coast of the country since known as Brazil, in lat.i.tude sixteen degrees south of the line. Unable to prosecute explorations there, as he was bound for the East, around the Cape of Good Hope and along the west coast of Africa, Cabral sent a vessel of his fleet back to Portugal with the news, and proceeded on his way.
Casting about for a navigator eminently qualified as pilot and cosmographer to pursue the exploration indicated by Cabral, along the coast of the country he had so strangely revealed, King Emanuel of Portugal made up his mind that Amerigo Vespucci was the man he wanted.
Just when he came to this decision, and when Vespucci s.h.i.+fted his allegiance from Spain to Portugal, is not exactly known, but it was probably late in the year 1500, after his return, of course, from the voyage with Ojeda and La Cosa. The particulars of this transaction we will let him relate in the following letter contained in this chapter.
He does not quite satisfactorily explain how he came to break with King Ferdinand, especially as both the sovereign and Fonseca had received him with marked attention, the latter having presented him at court, where he was consulted as to new expeditions, and ”his accounts of what he had already seen listened to with the greatest interest.”
The affair is all the more inexplicable from the fact that during the interval between his return from the second voyage and his going to Portugal he was married to a charming lady of Seville. This lady, Dona Maria Cerezo, was his betrothed during the time he was engaged with the house of Berardi, but the mania for exploring having seized him, their marriage was not consummated until after the two voyages had been made. She went with him to the court, sharing there the honors heaped upon him by the king; but after this little is heard of her, though it is known that she survived him several years, and on account of his distinguished services to Spain received a liberal pension from the government.
Leaving his newly wedded wife in Seville, Vespucci went to Portugal, ”where he was received with open arms by King Emanuel, and commenced with ardor the preparation of the fleet.” Respecting his sudden departure from Spain, his Italian eulogist, Canovai, has this to say: ”It does not appear that King Ferdinand considered himself wronged by the sudden flight and, to say the least, apparent discourtesy of Amerigo in leaving the kingdom and the king, his patron, without salutation or leave-taking. It was probably looked upon as a trait of his reserved character, or an evidence of his aversion to idle and slanderous rumors, which he was unwilling to take the pains to contradict. Rumors and whisperings soon die away when they have nothing to feed upon, and when Vespucci returned, as though from a journey, the slight was forgotten, and he was treated with greater honor than before.”
To what cause King Emanuel owed this acquisition of King Ferdinand's skilled navigator does not appear; but he was not to retain him very long. He made, however, two voyages under the flag of Portugal, the first of which is outlined in this letter to his friend, the Gonfaloniere of Florence, Piero Soderini:
”I was reposing myself in Seville, after the many toils I had undergone in the two voyages to the Indies, made for his Serene Highness Ferdinand, King of Castile, yet indulging in a willingness to return to the Land of Pearls, when Fortune, not seeming to be satisfied with my former labors, inspired the mind of his Majesty Emanuel, King of Portugal (I know not through what circ.u.mstances), to attempt to avail himself of my services. There came to me a royal letter from his majesty, containing a solicitation that I would come to Lisbon to speak with him, he promising to show me many favors. I did not at once determine to go, and argued with the messenger, telling him I was ill and indisposed for the undertaking, but that when recovered, if his highness wished me to serve him, I would do whatever he might command.
”Seeing that he could not obtain me thus, he sent Juliano di Bartolomeo del Giocondo, who at that time resided in Lisbon, with a commission to use every means to bring me back with him. Juliano came to Seville, and on his arrival, and induced by his urgent entreaties, I was persuaded to go, though my going was looked upon with ill favor by all who knew me. It was thus regarded by my friends, because I had abandoned Castile, where I had been honored, and because they thought the king had rightful possession of me; and it was considered still worse that I departed without taking leave of my host.
”Having, however, presented myself at the court of King Emanuel, he appeared to be highly pleased with my coming, and requested that I would accompany his three s.h.i.+ps, which were then ready to set out for the discovery of new lands.
Thus esteeming a request from a king as equivalent to a command, I was obliged to consent to whatever he asked of me.
”We set sail from the port of Lisbon with three s.h.i.+ps in company, on the l3th of May, 1501, and steered our course directly for the Grand Canary Islands, which we pa.s.sed without stopping, and coasted along the western sh.o.r.es of Africa. On this coast we found excellent fis.h.i.+ng, taking fish called porgies, and were detained three days. From there we went to the coast of Ethiopia, arriving at a port called Beseneghe, within the torrid zone, and situated on the fourteenth degree of north lat.i.tude, in the first climate. Here we remained eleven days, taking in wood and water--as it was my intention to sail south through the great Atlantic Ocean. Leaving this port of Ethiopia, we sailed on our course, bearing a quarter south, and in ninety-seven days we made land, at a distance of seven hundred leagues from said port.
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