Chapter
10 - From Paradise to Prison
If you know a boy or a girl whose mind
is set on any one thing,
you will find that they are always talking about that thing.
Is
not this so? They have what people call a "hobby" (which
is a
kind of a horse, you know), and they are apt, as we say,
to "ride
their hobby to death."
If this is true of certain boys and girls, it is even
more true
of men and women. They get to be what we call people of
one idea,
and whatever they see or whatever they do always turns
on that
one idea.
It was so with Columbus. All his life his one idea had
been the
finding of Asia--the Indies, or Cathay, as he called it--by
sailing to the west. He did sail to the west. He did find
land.
And, because of this, as we have seen, all his voyaging
and all
his exploring were done in the firm belief that he was
discovering new parts of the eastern coast of Asia. The
idea that
he had found a new world never entered his head.
So, when he looked toward the west, as he sailed around
the
island of Trinidad and saw the distant shore, he said it
was a
new part of Asia. He was as certain of this as he had before
been
certain that Cuba was a part of the Asiatic mainland.
But when he sailed into the mouth of the great Orinoco
River he
was puzzled. For the water was no longer salt; it grew
fresher
and fresher as he sailed on. And it rushed out so furiously
through the two straits at the northern and southern ends
of
Trinidad (which because of the terrible rush of their currents
he
called the Lion's Mouth and the Dragon's Mouth) that he
was at
first unable to explain it all.
Then he had a curious idea. Columbus was a great reader
of the
Bible; some of the Bible scholars of his day said that
the Garden
of Eden was in a far Eastern land where a mighty river
came down
through it from the hills of Paradise; as Columbus saw
the
beautiful land he had reached, and saw the great river
sending
down its waters to the sea, he fitted all that he saw to
the
Bible stories he knew so well, and felt sure that he had
really
discovered the entrance to the Garden of Eden.
He would gladly have sailed across the broad bay and up
the great
river to explore this heavenly land; but he was ill with
gout, he
was nearly blind from his sore eyes, his ships were shaky
and
leaky, and he felt that he ought to hurry away to the city
of
Isabella where his brothers, Bartholomew and Diego, were
in
charge of affairs and were, he knew, anxiously waiting
for him to
come back.
So at last he turned away from the lovely land that he
thought
must be Paradise and steered toward Hayti. On the nineteenth
of
August he arrived off the coast of Hayti. He sent a messenger
with news of his arrival, and soon greeted his brother
Bartholomew, who, when he heard of the Admiral's arrival,
sailed
at once to meet him.
Bartholomew Columbus had a sad story to tell his brother
Christopher. Things had been going badly in Hayti, and
the poor
Admiral grew sicker and sicker as he listened to what Bartholomew
had to tell.
You have heard it said that there are black sheep in every
flock.
There were black sheep in this colony of Columbus. There
were
lazy men and discontented men and jealous men, and they
made
great trouble, both in the city of Isabella and in the
new town
which Bartholomew bad built in another part of the island
and
called Santo Domingo.
Such men are sure to make mischief, and these men in Hayti
had
made a lot of it. Columbus had staid so long in Spain that
these
men began to say that they knew he was certainly in trouble
or
disgrace there, that the king and queen were angry with
him, and
that his offices of viceroy and admiral were to be taken
away
from him. If this were so, they were going to look out
for
themselves, they said. They would no longer obey the commands
of
the Admiral's brothers, Bartholomew and Diego, whom he
had left
in charge.
So they rose in rebellion, and made things so uncomfortable
for
the two brothers that the colony was soon full of strife
and
quarreling.
The leader of this revolt was one of the chief men in
the colony.
His name was Roldan. When Columbus and Bartholomew sailed
into
the harbor of Santo Domingo, on the thirtieth of August,
they
found that Roldan and his followers had set up a camp for
themselves in another part of the island, and given out
that they
were determined never to have anything more to do with
the three
Columbus brothers.
This rebellion weakened the colony dreadfully. Things
looked
desperate; so desperate indeed that Columbus, after thinking
it
all over, thought that the only way to do was to seem to
give in
to Roldan and patch up some sort of an agreement by which
they
could all live together in peace. But all the same, he
said, I
will complain to the king and have this rebel Roldan punished.
So the Admiral wrote Roldan a letter in which he offered
to
forgive and forget all that he had done if he would come
back and
help make the colony strong and united again. Roldan agreed
to do
this, if he could have the same position he held before,
and if
Columbus would see that his followers had all the land
they
wanted. Columbus agreed to this and also gave the rebels
permission to use the poor natives as slaves on their lands.
So
the trouble seemed to be over for a while, and Columbus
sent two
of his ships to Spain with letters to the king and queen.
But in
these letters he accused Roldan of rebellion and tried
to explain
why it was that things were going so badly in Hayti.
But when these ships arrived in Spain the tidings they
brought
and the other letters sent by them only made matters worse.
People in Spain had heard so many queer things from across
the
sea that they were beginning to lose faith in Columbus.
The men
who had lost health and money in the unlucky second voyage
of the
Admiral were now lazy loafers about the docks, or they
hung about
the court and told how Columbus had made beggars of them,
while
they hooted after and insulted the two sons of Columbus
who were
pages in the queen's train. They called the boys the sons
of "the
Admiral of Mosquitoland."
Then came the ships with news of Roldan's rebellion, but
with
little or no gold. And people said this was a fine viceroy
who
couldn't keep order among his own men because, no doubt,
he was
too busy hiding away for his own use the gold and pearls
they
knew he must have found in the river of Paradise he said
he had
discovered.
Then came five shiploads of Indian slaves, sent to Spain
by
Columbus, and along with them came the story that Columbus
had
forgiven Roldan for his rebellion and given him lands and
office
in Hayti.
King Ferdinand had never really liked Columbus and had
always
been sorry that he had given him so much power and so large
a
share in the profits. The queen, too, began to think that
while
Columbus was a good sailor, he was a very poor governor.
But when
she heard of the shiploads of slaves he had sent, and found
out
that among the poor creatures were the daughters of some
of the
chiefs, or caciques, of the Indians, she was very angry,
and
asked how "her viceroy" dared to use "her
vassals" so without
letting her know about it. "Things were indeed beginning
to look
bad for Columbus. The king and queen had promised that
only
members of the Admiral's family should be sent to govern
the
island; they had promised that no one but himself should
have the
right to trade in the new lands. But now they began to
go back on
their promises. If Columbus cannot find us gold and spices,
they
said, other men can. So they gave permission to other captains
to
explore and trade in the western lands. And as the complaints
against the Admiral kept coming they began to talk of sending
over some one else to govern the islands.
More letters came from Columbus asking the king and queen
to let
him keep up his slave-trade, and to send out some one to
act as a
judge of his quarrel with Roldan. Then the king and queen
decided
that something must be done at once. The queen ordered
the return
of the slaves Columbus had sent over, and the king told
one of
his officers named Bobadilla to go over to Hayti and set
things
straight. And he sent a letter by him commanding Columbus
to talk
with him, to give up all the forts and arms in the colony
and to
obey Bobadilla in all things.
Bobadilla sailed at once. But before he got across the
sea
matters, as we know, had been straightened out by the Admiral;
and when Bobadilla reached Hayti he found everything quiet
there.
Columbus had made friends with Roldan (or made believe
that he
had), and had got things into good running order again.
This was not what Bobadilla had reckoned upon. He had
expected to
find things in such a bad way that he would have to take
matters
into his own hand at once, and become a greater man than
the
Admiral. If everything was all right he would have his
journey
for nothing and everybody would laugh at him. So he determined
to
go ahead, even though there was no necessity for his taking
charge of affairs. He had been sent to do certain things,
and he
did them at once. Without asking Columbus for his advice
or his
assistance, he took possession of the forts and told every
one
that he was governor now. He said that he had come to set
things
straight, and he listened to the complaints of all the
black
sheep of the colony--and how they did crowd around him
and say
the worst things they could think of against the Admiral
they had
once been so anxious to follow.
Bobadilla listened to all their stories. He proceeded
to use the
power the king and queen had given him to punish and disgrace
Columbus--which was not what they meant him to do. He moved
into
the palace of the Admiral; he ordered the Admiral and his
brothers to come to him, and when they came expecting to
talk
things over, Bobadilla ordered that they be seized as prisoners
and traitors, that they be chained hand and foot and put
in
prison.
Columbus's saddest day had come. The man who had found
a new
world for his king and queen, who had worked so hard in
their
service and who had meant to do right, although he had
made many
mistakes, was thrust into prison as if he were a thief
or a
murderer. The Admiral of the Ocean Seas, the Viceroy of
the
Indies, the grand man whom all Spain had honored and all
the
world had envied, was held as a prisoner in the land he
had
found, and all his powers were taken by a stranger. He
was sick,
he was disappointed, he was defeated in all his plans.
And now he
was in chains. His third voyage had ended the worst of
all. He
had sailed away to find Cathay; he had, so he believed,
found the
Garden of Eden and the river of Paradise. And here, as
an end to
it all, he was arrested by order of the king and queen
he had
tried to serve, his power and position were taken from
him by an
insolent and unpitying messenger from Spain; he was thrown
into
prison and after a few days he was hurried with his brothers
on
board a ship and sent to Spain for trial and punishment.
How
would it all turn out? Was it not a sad and sorry ending
to his
bright dreams of success? |