ignorant sailors (those convenient scape-goats who are forever made to fill the breaches in Columbus's biographies) who frantically repeated passages from St. John. M. de Lorgues is justly indignant at this new attempt to rob Columbus of his "wellearned fame." He says:

"It is vain for Mr. Irving to try to hide under the plural form the spontaneous initiative of Columbus, and to keep out of sight his individual action. The event itself intrinsically protests against such a disfigurement of history, and opposes to it both moral and physical impossibilities. How could the caravels, separated from each other by the terrible commotion of the elements, scarcely able to see each other across the watery vapors and the globules of foam filling the air, and still less hearing each other, how could they, we say, settle on a plan of combating the water-spout, agree about the choice of an evangelist, and fix on a passage deemed proper for warding off the peril? Not to mention other reasons, Irving does not seem to have considered that none of the pilots would, of themselves, have conceived an expedient so singularly foreign to nautical science," and, at the same time, so bold in a spiritual point of view." 146

Whether owing to the admiral's impressive and appropriate exhortation, or in pursuance of its natural course, the water-spout passed without harming the little caravels. The storm had, however, separated one of them from the rest, and it was only after encountering great peril, and losing her boat, that she was enabled to rejoin the squadron, which was in sorry condition-provisions exhausted or rotten-when, on the 17th of December, it found welcome refuge in a port. Here, we are told, the natives lived in houses built in the tops of trees, like the nests of birds. Fernando, who seems to have entered fully into his father's spirit of invention, states that the practice was caused by the number of griffins which abound in that place. Mr. Irving, while drawing principally upon Fernando for his account of this voyage, wisely omits this absurdity, or travesties it into some appearance of truth by telling us the houses were thus built to escape from the wild beasts, etc., that abound in that region.

145 In this we fully concur.

146 De Lorgue, "Christophe Colombe," vol. ii., liv. iv., chapter ii.

WAR BETWEEN SPANIARDS AND NATIVES.

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Leaving this port after much buffeting against adverse winds and waves, the caravels entered another, where the stock of wood, water, and provisions, was replenished, and whence they started on the 3d of January, 1503, and shortly reached a river near Veragua, which Columbus named Belen (Bethlehem).

Bartholomew, with the assistance of the friendly natives, especially of their chief Quibian, explored the country and found it rich in gold; it was, therefore, determined to form a settlement on the banks of the Belen, where Bartholomew should be left with eighty men to amass gold, while Columbus returned to Spain. The settlement was made, but the licentious and covetous conduct of the Spaniards, here as elsewhere, made enemies of the friendly-disposed Indians. Hostilities soon commenced, and the chief Quibian was, with all his family, treacherously captured by Bartholomew, while all the gold (his possessing which constituted his chief offense) found in his house was, of course, seized. The chief succeeded in effecting his escape by plunging, bound as he was, into the sea; his family, wives, and children were, however, taken on board Columbus's vessel, and confined in the hold. This capture aroused the indignation of Quibian, who, with his followers, now thirsted for vengeance. The colony was attacked. Columbus had already crossed the shallow bar at the entrance of the river, leaving one caravel for the use of the settlement, and was anchored at sea ready to sail at the first fair wind. He sent a boat up the river to procure supplies of wood and water. This boat was attacked when far inland, and destroyed by the outraged natives, and of the eight men composing its crew only one reached the settlement to tell the tale. Columbus, outside the river, remained alike ignorant of the loss of the boat and crew, and of the hostile disposition of the natives, who he hoped would have been frightened into submission by the fate of their chief's family. The latter, immured in the loathsome hold of the wretched caravel, now resolved upon one brave and desperate attempt to recover freedom. Piling up the stones which served as ballast to the ship, they climbed upon them, and succeeded in springing open the hatches, notwithstanding several sailors lay sleeping upon them, and a number, plunging into the sea, escaped. Some, however, were secured ere they could leap overboard; these unfortunates were all found dead the next day, having themselves ended their

lives rather than submit to be the slaves of their cruel and un

grateful captors.

Columbus was seriously alarmed at the effect the reappearance of the prisoners would have upon their countrymen; he feared that the recital of what they had endured would rouse again the hatred and hostility of the tribes. He was, however, unable to reënter the river and learn the condition of the colony, or the fate of the men he had sent inland, on account of the heavy surge at the mouth of the Belen.

It was at this period, when, by his mismanagement, affairs

PRETENDED INTERVIEW OF COLUMBUS WITH THE DEITY.

had reached a most disagreeable crisis, that one of Columbus's visions and convenient conversations with the Deity took place, if we are to believe himself, who thus describes the scene:

"All hope of escape was gone. I toiled up to the highest part of the ship, and, with a quivering voice and fast-falling tears, I called upon your highnesses' war-captains from each point of the compass to come to my succor, but there was no

147

THE DEITY CONVERSES WITH COLUMBUS.

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reply. At length, groaning with exhaustion, I fell asleep and heard a compassionate voice address me thus:

"O fool, and slow to believe and to serve thy God, the God of all! What did He do more for Moses, or for David his servant, than He has done for thee? From thine infancy, He has kept thee under his constant and watchful care. When He saw thee arrived at an age which suited his designs respecting thee, He brought wonderful renown to thy name throughout all the land. He gave thee for thine own the Indies, which form so rich a portion of the world, and thou hast divided them as it pleased thee, for He gave thee power to do so. He gave thee, also, the keys of those barriers of the ocean sea which were closed with such mighty chains; and thou wast obeyed through many lands, and gained an honorable fame throughout Christendom. What more did the Most High do for the people of Israel when He brought them out of Egypt, or for David, who from a shepherd He made to be king in Judea? Turn to Him, and acknowledge thine error. His mercy is infinite; thine old age shall not prevent thee from accomplishing any great undertaking. He holds under his sway the greatest possessions. Abraham had exceeded a hundred years of age when he begat Isaac, nor was Sarah young. Thou criest out for uncertain help; answer who has afflicted thee so much, and so often-God or the World? The privileges promised by God, He never fails in bestowing, nor does He ever declare, after a service has been rendered Him, that such was not agreeable with his intention, or that He had regarded the matter in another light; nor does He inflict suffering, in order to give effect to the manifestations of his power. His acts answer to his words, and it is his custom to perform all his promises with interest. Thus I have told thee what the Creator has done for thee, and what He does for all men. Even now He partially shows thee the reward of so many toils and dangers incurred by thee in the service of others." "

There is, we cannot too often repeat, something revolting in this maudlin defense of Columbus, put by him in the mouth of the Almighty, whom, in his blasphemous effrontery, he causes to threaten all who do not believe in and cherish him. He even, behind the screen of Divinity, hazards a thrust at Isabella, and reveals, for a moment, the sharp claws which he usu

ally concealed beneath his smooth and cringing sycophancy. If this be madness, yet there is method in it.

Matters did not much improve in spite of Columbus's very sensible appeal to her majesty's war-captains. Doubt and apprehension every day increased, till a hardy pilot, Pedro Ledesma by name, volunteered to swim ashore and investigate. This he did, and discovered the colonists beleaguered by everincreasing numbers of natives, and in despair at being left in that land at the mercy of the much-injured Indians. He also learned the fate of the boat and crew, and, upon reporting these facts to Columbus, the latter concluded to abandon the settlement. The caravel which had been left in the river had been allowed to become utterly unseaworthy, and was abandoned; all the men, therefore, embarked in the three remaining vessels.

It appears that Columbus regarded the gold-mines of Veragua as the only real benefit likely to accrue to Spain from his enterprises. He now took such precautions as to render it, he hoped, impossible for any but himself to return to them. He, therefore confiscated the charts of the pilots and mariners, and boastingly writes to the sovereigns: "Let them answer and say if they know where Veragua is situated. I assert that they can give no other account than that they went to lands where there was an abundance of gold, and this they can certify surely enough; but they do not know the way to return thither for such a purpose; they would be obliged to go on a voyage of discovery as much as if they had never been there before."

148

He evidently hoped to get some hold on Isabella, and wished to make her believe that she was at his mercy, so far as regarded the possession of the gold-mines.

Adverse weather pertinaciously clings to Columbus, and, as he proceeded along the coast westward, he was obliged to abandon another of his vessels at Puerto Bello. The condition of the remaining two was not such as to warrant much trifling, yet Columbus sailed among the Mulata Islands, where once more he-apparently considering the territories of the grand-khan as

148 One of the witnesses in the lawsuit between Diego Columbus and the crown, Pedro Mateos of Higuey, testified that he had accompanied Columbus on his fourth voyage, and that he "wrote a book in which he had laid down all the mountains and rivers of the said province (Veragua), and the admiral afterward took it away from him." (Navarrete, "Colecc. Dip.," vol. iii., p. 584.)