Peter Parleys Tales About America and Australia | Page 9

themselves naturally so abstemious and their wants so few,
that they were easily satisfied with the fruits of the island, which, with
a handful of maize or a little of the insipid bread made of the cassava
root, were sufficient for their support.
But it was with difficulty they could afford subsistence for the new
guests. The Spaniards, though considered an abstemious people,
appeared to them excessively voracious. One Spaniard consumed as
much as several Indians; this keenness of appetite appeared so
insatiable, that they supposed the Spaniards had left their own country
because it did not produce enough to gratify their immoderate appetites,
and had come among them in quest of nourishment.
Columbus having taken all the steps which he thought necessary to
ensure the prosperity of his new colony, entrusted the command of the
military force to Margaritta, and set sail with three vessels to extend his
discoveries; but, after a long and tedious voyage, in which he endured
every hardship, the most important discovery he made was the island of
Jamaica.
Having been absent much longer than he had expected, he returned to
his new settlement, but the colonists had become refractory and
unmanageable.

No sooner had he left the island on his voyage of discovery, than the
soldiers under Margaritta dispersed in straggling parties over the island,
lived at discretion upon the natives, wasted their property, and treated
that inoffensive race with the insolence of military oppression.
During the absence of Columbus, several unfavourable accounts of his
conduct had been transmitted to Spain, and these accusations gained
such credit in that jealous court, that Aguado, a person in every way
unsuited for the purpose, was appointed to proceed to Hispaniola to
observe the conduct of Columbus.
This man listened with eagerness to every accusation of the
discontented Spaniards, and fomented still further the spirit of
dissension in the island.
Columbus felt how humiliating it must be if he remained in the island
with such a partial inspector to observe his motions and control his
authority; he therefore took the resolution of returning to Spain, in
order to lay a full account of his transactions before Ferdinand and
Isabella.
Having committed the government of the colony during his absence to
Don Bartholomew, his brother, he appointed Roldan Chief Justice, a
choice which afterwards caused great calamities to the colony.
On his arrival in Spain, Columbus appeared at court with the
confidence of a man, not only conscious of having done no wrong, but
of having performed great services.
Ferdinand and Isabella, ashamed of having listened to ill-founded
accusations, received him with such marks of respect as silenced the
calumnies of his enemies, and covered them with shame and confusion.
The gold, the pearls, and other commodities of value which he had
brought home, and the mines which he had found, fully proved the
value and importance of his discoveries, though Columbus considered
them only as preludes to future and more important acquisitions.

[Illustration]
CHAPTER V.
PARLEY TELLS HOW COLUMBUS DISCOVERS THE
CONTINENT OF AMERICA.
Columbus, having been furnished with six vessels of no great burden,
departed on his third voyage. He touched at the Canaries and at the
Cape de Verd islands; from the former he despatched three ships with a
supply of provisions for the colony of Hispaniola; with the other three
he continued his voyage to the south.
Nothing remarkable occurred till they were within five degrees of the
line; then they were becalmed, and the heat became so excessive, that
the wine casks burst and their provisions were spoiled.
The Spaniards, who had never ventured so far to the south, were afraid
the ships would take fire, but they were relieved in some measure from
their fear by a seasonable fall of rain.
This, however, though so heavy and incessant that the men could
hardly keep the deck, did not greatly mitigate the heat, and Columbus
was at last constrained to yield to the importunities of his crew, and to
alter his course to the north-west, in order to reach some of the
Caribbee islands, where he might refit and be supplied with provisions.
On the 1st of August, 1498, the man stationed at the round-top
surprised them with the joyful cry of "Land!" They stood towards it,
and discovered a considerable island, which the admiral called Trinidad,
a name it still retains, and near it the mouth of a river, rolling towards
the ocean such a vast body of water, and rushing into it with such
impetuous force, that when it meets the tide, which on that coast rises
to an uncommon height, their meeting occasions an extraordinary and
dangerous swell of the waves.
In this conflict, the irresistable torrent of the river so far prevails, that it
freshens the ocean many leagues with its