South America | Page 9

to the truth of this latter charge; but Columbus was
not alone in this respect--indeed, at that time there was no single
adventurer who had penetrated to these new regions without making
slaves whenever the opportunity arose. And it may be said in common
fairness to the individual explorers that no other method was
understood, and that this procedure was considered entirely legitimate.
It is unnecessary to enter here into the troubles and tribulations of
Columbus's first voyage. The details of the men's discontent and of the
leader's courage, persistence, and strategy have been the subject of
thousands of works. The great contrition, moreover, of his mutinous
crew, when after five weeks' sailing they sighted land, and their sudden
admiration and almost worship of the great navigator, afford too
familiar a subject to be dealt with here. Suffice to say that Columbus
took possession of this first land--the island which he believed to form
part of a continent--in the name of the Crown of Castile and Leon,
christening this herald of a new world San Salvador.

For a while the shock of this triumph appears to have deadened all
other considerations, but only for a while. Columbus, like every other
navigator of the period, had gone out in search of glory, and of gilded
glory for preference. The very first thought, therefore, which took
possession of the minds of both the Admiral and his men, when the first
exultation had died away in favour of more practical affairs, was that of
gold. To this end they cruised about the new seas, visiting Cuba, Haiti
(or Hispaniola), and other islands.
After a while Columbus discovered some traces of the coveted metal,
but these to his heated imagination were mere chance fragments of the
golden mountains and valleys which lay somewhere beyond. It was
time, he determined, to seek for further assistance. Leaving a small
company of the Spaniards in the Island of Haiti, the inhabitants of
which had proved themselves friendlily disposed, he sailed for Europe,
taking with him such specimens of the New World as he thought would
chiefly appeal to the Spanish Court. Among this merchandise were
samples of the products of the Western Islands, small nuggets of gold,
and human merchandise in the way of captive Indians.
When his heavily-laden ships arrived in Spain the entire nation broke
out into thunders of acclamation. Queen Isabella received him with
even more than her accustomed amount of graciousness, while the
coldness which had characterized Ferdinand's attitude towards him had
now become altered to fervent enthusiasm.
The Court of Spain, convinced of the value of these new possessions,
lost no time in applying to Pope Alexander VI. for his sanction of their
dominion over the New World. This the Pope granted, drawing the
famous line from Pole to Pole, which was to serve as a dividing line
between the colonies of Spain and Portugal.
Columbus, in the meanwhile, was preparing for his second voyage.
Naturally enough, this was conducted under very different auspices
from the first. It was now a proud fleet which, favoured by the trade
winds, ploughed its way to the south-west, manned by a numerous,
influential, and in many cases aristocratic, company. The advent of this
second fleet to Haiti brought about the first of the innumerable

collisions between the Europeans and the natives of America. Of the
garrison which Columbus had left in the island none remained. There
was scarcely a trace, moreover, of the existence of the rough fort which
had been constructed. The manner of the natives had altered; they
received the new-comers with marked evidences of fear and distrust.
After a while the truth came out. Some members of the European
garrison had taken upon themselves to maltreat the natives, and these,
resenting this, had turned upon their aggressors and slaughtered them to
a man, after which they had burned the fort to the ground. In order to
inculcate the necessary terror into the unfortunate inhabitants a fearful
revenge was wreaked on them by Columbus's men, and the unhappy
people of Haiti paid for their act in floods of blood and tears. This
continued until the Indians became for the time being thoroughly
cowed. Subsequently they were set to work to dig for gold and other
metals in order to enrich the pioneers.
As time went on the natives were ground down more and more, and set
to tasks for which they were temperamentally quite unsuited. Death
became rife among their ranks, and the hardships endured drove them
to open rebellion. The armour and weapons of the Spaniards rendered
any attempts of the kind abortive, and massacres and torturing
completed the enslaving process of the wretched race.
Communication between the New and Old World was at that time, of
course, slow and precarious in the extreme.