Part 54 (1/2)
[Sidenote: New revolt in Higuey.]
The peace was not of long duration. The reckless habits of the garrison had once more aroused the courage of the Indians, and some of the latest occurrences which Salcedo could tell of as having been reported at Santo Domingo just before his sailing for Jamaica were the events of a new revolt in Higuey.
[Sidenote: 1504. August 3. Columbus at Beata.]
[Sidenote: 1504. August 15. At Santo Domingo.]
Such were the stories which Columbus may have listened to during the tedious voyage which was now, on August 3, approaching an end. On that day his s.h.i.+ps sailed under the lea of the little island of Beata, which lies midway of the southern coast of Espanola. Here he landed a messenger, and ordered him to convey a letter to Ovando, warning the governor of his approach. Salcedo had told Columbus that the governor was not without apprehension that his coming might raise some factious disturbances among the people, and in this letter the Admiral sought to disabuse Ovando's mind of such suspicions, and to express his own purpose to avoid every act of irritation which might possibly embarra.s.s the administration of the island. The letter dispatched, Columbus again set sail, and on August 15 his s.h.i.+p entered the harbor of Santo Domingo.
Ovando received him with every outward token of respect, and lodged him in his own house. Columbus, however, never believed that this officious kindness was other than a cloak to Ovando's dislike, if not hatred.
There was no little popular sympathy for the misfortunes which Columbus had experienced, but his relations with the governor were not such as to lighten the anxieties of his sojourn. It is known that Cortes was at this time only recently arrived at Santo Domingo; but we can only conjecture what may have been his interest in Columbus's recitals.
[Sidenote: Columbus and Ovando.]
There soon arose questions of jurisdiction. Ovando ordered the release of Porras, and arranged for sending him to Spain for trial. The governor also attempted to interfere with the Admiral's control of his own crew, on the ground that his commission gave him command over all the regions of the new islands and the main. Columbus cited the instructions, which gave him power to rule and judge his own followers. Ovando did not push his claims to extremities, but the irritation never subsided; and Columbus seems to have lost no opportunity, if we may judge from his later letters, to pick up every scandalous story and tale of maladministration of which he could learn, and which could be charged against Ovando in later appeals to the sovereigns for a rest.i.tution of his own rights. The Admiral also inquired into his pecuniary interests in the island, and found, as he thought, that Ovando had obstructed his factor in the gathering of his share. Indeed, there may have been some truth in this; for Carvajal, Columbus's first factor, had complained of such acts to the sovereigns, which elicited an admonishment from them to Ovando.
[Sidenote: 1504. September 12. Columbus sails for Spain.]
[Sidenote: 1504. November 7. Reaches San Lucar.]
Such money as Columbus could now collect he used in refitting the s.h.i.+p which had brought him from Jamaica, and he put her under the order of the Adelantado. Securing also another caravel for his own conveyance, he embarked on her with his son, and on September 12 both s.h.i.+ps started on their homeward voyage. They were scarcely at sea, when the s.h.i.+p which bore the Admiral lost her mast in a gale. He transferred himself and his immediate dependents to the other vessel, and sent the disabled caravel back to Santo Domingo. His solitary vessel now went forward, amid all the adversities that seemed to cling inevitably to this last of Columbus's expeditions. Tempest after tempest pursued him. The masts were sprung, and again sprung; and in a forlorn and disabled condition the little hapless bark finally entered the port of San Lucar on November 7, 1504. He had been absent from Spain for two years and a half.
CHAPTER XX.
COLUMBUS'S LAST YEARS.--DEATH AND CHARACTER.
1504-1506.
[Sidenote: Columbus in Seville till May, 1505.]
[Sidenote: Letters to his son.]
From San Lucar, Columbus, a sick man in search of quiet and rest, was conveyed to Seville. Unhappily, there was neither repose nor peace of mind in store for him. He remained in that city till May, 1505, broken in spirits and almost helpless of limb. Fortunately, we can trace his varying mental moods during these few months in a series of letters, most of which are addressed by him to his son Diego, then closely attached to the Court. These writings have fortunately come down to us, and they const.i.tute the only series of Columbus's letters which we have, showing the habits of his mind consecutively for a confined period, so that we get a close watch upon his thoughts. They are the wails of a neglected soul, and the cries of one whose hope is cruelly deferred.
They have in their entirety a good deal of that haphazard jerkiness tiresome to read, and not easily made evident in abstract. They are, however, not so deficient in mental equipoise as, for instance, the letter sent from Jamaica. This is perhaps owing to the one absorbing burden of them, his hope of recovering possession of his suspended authority.
[Sidenote: 1504. November 21.]
He writes on November 21, 1504, a fortnight after his landing at San Lucar, telling his son how he has engaged his old friend, the Dominican Deza, now the Bishop of Palencia, to intercede with the sovereigns, that justice may be done to him with respect to his income, the payment of which Ovando had all along, as he contends, obstructed at Espanola. He tries to argue that if their Highnesses but knew it, they would, in ordering rest.i.tution to him, increase their own share. He hopes they have no doubt that his zeal for their interests has been quite as much as he could manifest if he had paradise to gain, and hopes they will remember, respecting any errors he may have committed, that the Lord of all judges such things by the intention rather than by the outcome. He seems to have a suspicion that Porras, now at liberty and about the Court, might be insidiously at work to his old commander's disadvantage, and he represents that neither Porras nor his brother had been suitable persons for their offices, and that what had been done respecting them would be approved on inquiry. ”Their revolt,” he says, ”surprised me, considering all that I had done for them, as much as the sun would have alarmed me if it had shot shadows instead of light.” He complains of Ovando's taking the prisoners, who had been companions of Porras, from his hands, and that, made free, they had even dared to present themselves at Court. ”I have written,” he adds, ”to their Highnesses about it, and I have told them that it can't be possible that they would tolerate such an offense.” He says further that he has written to the royal treasurer, begging him to come to no decision of the representations of such detractors until the other side could be heard, and he adds that he has sent to the treasurer a copy of the oath which the mutineers sent in after Porras had been taken. ”Recall to all these people,” he writes to his son, ”my infirmities, and the recompense due to me for my services.”
Diego was naturally, from his residence at Court, a convenient medium to bring all Columbus's wishes to the notice of those about the sovereigns.
The Admiral writes to Diego again that he hopes their Highnesses will see to the paying of his men who had come home. ”They are poor, and have been gone three years,” he says. ”They bring home evidences of the greatest of expectations in the new gold fields of Veragua;” and then he advises his son to bring this fact to the attention of all who are concerned, and to urge the colonizing of the new country as the best way to profit from its gold mines. For a while he harbored the hope that he might at once go on to the Court, and a litter which had served in the obsequies of Cardinal Mendoza was put at his disposal; but this plan was soon given up.
[Sidenote: 1504. November 28.]
A week later, having in the interim received a letter of the 15th, from Diego, Columbus writes again, under date of November 28. In this epistle he speaks of the severity of his disease, which keeps him in Seville, from which, however, he hopes to depart the coming week, and of his disappointment that the sovereigns had not replied to his inquiries. He sends his love to Diego Mendez, hoping that his friend's zeal and love of truth will enable him to overcome the deceits and intrigues of Porras.
[Sidenote: 1504. November 26. Queen Isabella dies.]
[Sidenote: Isabella's character.]