De Orbe Novo, Volume 1 (of 2) by Trans. by Francis Augustus MacNutt

T >> Trans. by Francis Augustus MacNutt >> De Orbe Novo, Volume 1 (of 2)

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"Listen to me, Christians; we people who go naked are not tormented by
covetousness, but we are ambitious, and we fight one against the other
for power, each seeking to conquer his neighbour. This, therefore, is
the source of frequent wars and of all our misfortunes. Our ancestors
have been fighting men. Our father, Comogre, likewise fought with his
neighbouring caciques, and we have been both conquerors and conquered.
Just as you see prisoners of war amongst us, as for instance those
seventy captives I have presented to you, so likewise have our enemies
captured some of our people; for such are the fortunes of war. Here
is one of our servants who was once the slave of the cacique who
possesses such treasures of gold, and is the ruler beyond the
mountains; there this man dragged out several years of a wretched
existence. Not only he, but many other prisoners as well as freemen,
who have traversed that country and afterwards come amongst us, know
these particulars as far back as they can remember; nevertheless
to convince you of the truth of my information and to allay your
suspicions, I will myself go as your guide. You may bind me, and you
may hang me to the first tree if you find I have not told you the
exact truth. Summon, therefore, a thousand soldiers, well armed for
fighting, in order that, by their help, and assisted by the warriors
of my father Comogre armed in their style, we may shatter the power of
our enemies. In this way you will obtain the gold you want, and our
reward for guiding and helping you will be our deliverance from
hostile attacks and from the fear under which our ancestors lived; and
which destroys our enjoyment of peace."

After speaking thus the wise son of Comogre kept silence; and the love
of gain and the hope of gold fairly made our men's mouths water.

BOOK IV

The Spaniards remained several days in that place, during which they
baptised the cacique Comogre, giving him the name of Charles, after
the Spanish prince, and likewise all his family with him. They then
rejoined their companions at Darien, promising, however, to send the
soldiers his son desired to assist him in crossing the sierra and
reaching the southern ocean. Upon their arrival at their village they
learned that Valdivia had returned six months after his departure but
with very few stores, because his ship was a small one. He did bring,
however, the promise of speedy reinforcements and provisions. The
Admiral-Viceroy and the other government officials of Hispaniola
admitted that they had thus far taken little thought for the colonists
at Darien, because they supposed the judge, Enciso, had already sailed
with a well-freighted ship. They assured the colonists that for the
future they would have care for their needs. For the time being they
had no vessel larger than the one they had lent to Valdivia and which
sufficed to relieve their present wants.

This caravel was, in fact, a caravel in name only, and because of
its form, but not in its capacity. The provisions Valdivia brought
sufficed only for the needs of the moment, and within a few days after
his arrival the miseries of famine once more began, chiefly because
a waterspout burst from the mountain top, accompanied by terrible
lightnings and thunders, and washed down such an amount of rubbish
that the harvests, planted in the month of September before the
campaign against the cacique Comogre began, were either swept away or
completely buried. They consisted of the grain for bread-making, which
is called in Hispaniola maize, and in Uraba _hobba_. This maize is
harvested twice yearly, for the cold of winter is unknown in this
country, because of its proximity to the equator. Bread made of hobba
or maize is preferable to wheaten bread for those who live in this
region, because it is more easily digested. This is in conformity
with physical laws, since, as cold diminishes, less inward heat is
generated.

Their hopes of a harvest being thus defeated, and knowing that the
neighbouring caciques had already been stripped of their provisions
and gold, the Spaniards were forced to penetrate into the interior in
search of food. At the same time they sent to inform the officials in
Hispaniola of their distress, and also of Comogre's revelations to
them about the southern ocean. It was desirable that the King of
Spain should send a thousand soldiers with whom they might cross the
mountains separating the two seas. Valdivia was sent back with these
letters, and he was charged to deliver to the King's fiscal agent in
Hispaniola the royal fifth due to the treasury, represented by three
hundred pounds of gold, at eight ounces to the pound. This pound is
called a _marc_ in Spanish, and is composed of fifty gold pieces,
called castellanos. The weight of each castellano, a Castilian coin,
is called a peso, and the entire sum, therefore, amounted to fifteen
thousand castellanos. The castellano is a coin somewhat inferior to
one thirtieth of a pound, but its value exceeds that of a golden
ducat. This coin is peculiar to Castile, and is not minted in any
other province. It may be concluded, therefore, from the sum assigned
for the royal fifth, that the Spaniards had taken from the caciques
fifteen hundred pounds of gold, at eight ounces to the pound. They
had found this metal worked into divers shapes: necklaces collars,
bracelets, small plaques to be worn on the breast, and ear or nose
rings.

On the third day of the ides of January, Anno Domini 1511, Valdivia
set sail on the little caravel with which he had just returned. In
addition to the instructions sent by Vasco Nunez and the gold destined
for the royal fisc, which we have mentioned, his friends had confided
to him their treasure for their relatives in Spain. I shall relate
in proper time what happened to Valdivia, but for the present let us
return to the colony at Uraba.

After Valdivia's departure the colonists, driven to desperation by
hunger, resolved to explore the outline of the gulf, of which the most
remote extremity is about eighty miles distant from the entrance. This
extremity is called by the Spaniards Culata.[1]

[Note 1: The southern end of the gulf still bears the name _Culata
del golfo_.]

Vasco Nunez embarked with about one hundred men on board a brigantine
and in some native barques dug out of tree trunks, called by the
islanders of Hispaniola canoes, and by the people of Uraba, _uru_. The
river flows into the gulf at that place from the east and is ten times
larger than the Darien. Up this river the Spaniards sailed for a
distance of thirty miles or a little more than nine leagues, and
turning to the left, which is towards the south, they came upon a
native village, whose cacique was called Dobaiba. In Hispaniola their
kings are called caciques and in Uraba, _chebi_, with the accent on
the last vowel. It was learned that Zemaco, cacique of Darien, who had
been defeated by the Spaniards in open battle, had taken refuge with
Dobaiba. The latter, counselled, as it was thought, by Zemaco, fled,
and thus evaded the Spanish attack. The place was deserted, though a
stock of bows and arrows, some pieces of furniture, nets, and several
fishing boats were found there. These districts being marshy and low
are unsuitable both for agriculture and plantations of trees, so there
are few food products, and the natives only procure these by trading
what fish they have in excess of their wants with their neighbours.
Nevertheless seven thousand castellanos of gold were picked up in the
deserted houses, besides several canoes, about a hundred bows and
parcels of arrows, all the furniture, and two native barques or uru.

In the night-time bats swarmed from the marshes formed by this
river, and these animals, which are as big as pigeons, tormented
the Spaniards with their painful bites. Those who have been bitten
confirmed this fact, and the judge Enciso who had been expelled, when
asked by me concerning the danger of such bites, told me that one
night, when he slept uncovered because of the heat, he had been bitten
by one of these animals on the heel, but that the wound had not been
more dangerous than one made by any other non-poisonous creature.
Other people claim that the bite is mortal, but may be cured by being
washed immediately with sea-water; Enciso also spoke of the efficacy
of this remedy. Cauterisation is also used, as it is employed for
wounds caused by native poisoned arrows. Enciso had had experience
in Caribana, where many of his men had been wounded. The Spaniards
returned to the Gulf of Uraba only partly satisfied, for they had
brought back no provisions. Such a terrible tempest overtook them in
that immense gulf on their return voyage, that they were obliged to
throw everything they had stolen from those wretched fishermen into
the sea. Moreover the uru, that is to say, the barques, were lost and
with them some of the men on board.

While Vasco Nunez was exploring the southern extremity of the gulf,
Roderigo Colmenares advanced, as had been agreed, by way of the river
bed towards the mountains along the eastern coast. At a distance of
about forty miles, that is to say, twelve leagues from the river's
mouth, he came upon some villages built on the river bank; the chief,
that is to say, chebi, was named Turvi. Colmenares remained with that
cacique, while Vasco Nunez, who had meanwhile returned to Darien,
marched to meet him. When the men of the two companies had been
somewhat recuperated by the provisions which Turvi furnished, their
leaders continued their march together. About forty miles distant they
discovered an island in the river, which was inhabited by fishermen,
and as they found wild cinnamon trees there, they named the island
Cannafistula. There were some sixty villages in groups of ten houses
each on this island, and the river on the right side was large enough
both for the native boats and for the brigantines. This river the
Spaniards named Rio Negro.

Fifteen miles from its mouth they found a village composed of five
hundred scattered houses, of which the chebi or cacique was called
Abenamacheios. All the houses were abandoned as soon as the Spaniards
approached; and while they were pursuing the natives the latter
suddenly turned, faced them, and threw themselves upon our soldiers
with the desperation of men driven from their homes. They fought with
wooden swords, sticks with hardened points and sharp javelins, but not
with arrows; for the river population of the west side of the gulf
do not use arrows in fighting. These poor creatures, being, in fact,
naked, were easily cut to pieces, and in the pursuit, the cacique
Abenamacheios and some of his principal chiefs were captured. A
foot-soldier, who had been wounded by the cacique, cut off his arm
with one blow of his sword, though this was done against the will of
the commanders. The Christians numbered altogether about one hundred
and fifty men, and the leaders left one half of them in this village,
continuing their way with the others in nine of the barques which I
have called uru.

Seventy miles distant from Rio Negro and the island of Cannafistula,
the Spaniards, passing by several streams on the right and left which
swelled the principal river, entered another under the guidance of a
native chief who took charge of the boats. The cacique of the country
along its banks was called Abibaiba.

All the region was swampy and the chief house of the cacique was
built in a tree. Novel and unaccustomed dwelling place! The country,
however, has such lofty trees that the natives may easily build houses
among their branches. We read something of this kind in different
authors who write of certain tribes who, when the waters are rising,
take refuge in these lofty trees and live upon the fish caught in
their branches. They place beams among the branches, joining them so
firmly that they resist the strongest winds. The Spaniards believe the
natives live thus in the trees because inundations are frequent, for
these trees are so tall that no human arm could reach them with a
stone. I no longer feel surprised at what Pliny and other writers
record about trees in India which, by reason of the fertility of the
soil and the abundant waters, attain such a height that no one could
shoot an arrow over them. It is, moreover, commonly believed that the
soil of this country and the supply of water are equal to that of
any other land under the sun. The above-named trees were found by
measuring to be of such a size that seven or eight men, with extended
arms, could hardly reach around them. The natives have cellars
underground where they keep stores of the wines we have before
mentioned. Although the violence of the wind cannot blow down their
houses or break the branches of the trees, they are still swayed about
from side to side, and this movement would spoil the wine. Everything
else they require, they keep with them in the trees, and whenever the
principal chiefs or caciques breakfast or dine, the servants bring up
the wine by means of ladders attached to the tree trunks, and they are
just as quick about it as our servants who, upon a level floor, serve
drinks from a sideboard near the table.

Approaching the tree of Abibaiba a discussion began between him and
the Spaniards; the latter offering him peace and begging him to come
down. The cacique refused and begged to be allowed to live in his own
fashion. Promises were succeeded by threats, and he was told that if
he did not come down with all his family they would either cut down or
set fire to the tree. A second time Abibaiba refused, so they attacked
the tree with axes; and when the cacique saw the chips flying he
changed his mind and came down, accompanied by his two sons. They
proceeded to discuss about peace and gold. Abibaiba declared that he
had no gold, and that as he had never needed it, he had taken no
pains to get it. The Spaniards insisting, the cacique said: "If
your cupidity be such, I will seek gold for you in the neighbouring
mountains and when I find it I will bring it to you; for it is found
in those mountains you behold." He fixed a day when he would return,
but neither then nor later did he reappear.

The Spaniards came back, loaded with the supplies and the wines of
the cacique, but without the gold they had counted upon. Nevertheless
Abibaiba, his subjects, and his sons gave the same information
concerning the gold mines and the Caribs who live upon human flesh,
as I have mentioned, as did those at Comogra. They ascended the river
another thirty miles and came to the huts of some cannibals but found
them empty, for the savages, alarmed by the approach of the Spaniards,
had taken refuge in the mountains, carrying everything they possessed
on their backs.

BOOK V

While these things were happening on the banks of this river, an
officer named Raia, whom Vasco Nunez and Colmenares had left in
charge of the camp at Rio Negro in the territory of the cacique
Abenamacheios, driven either by hunger or fatality ventured to
explore the neighbourhood with nine of his companions. He went to the
neighbouring village belonging to the cacique Abraibes, and there Raia
and two of his companions were massacred by that chief, the others
succeeding in escaping. Some few days later Abraibes, sympathising
with his relative and neighbour Abenamacheios, who had been
driven from his house and had had his arm cut off by one of our
foot-soldiers, gave the latter refuge in his house, after which he
sought out Abibaiba, the cacique who lived in a tree. The latter,
having been driven from his abode, also avoided attack by the
Spaniards and wandered in the most inaccessible regions of the
mountains and forests.

Abraibes spoke in the following words to Abibaiba: "What is this that
is happening, O unfortunate Abibaiba? What race is this that allows
us, unfortunates that we are, no peace? And for how long shall we
endure their cruelty? Is it not better to die than to submit to
such abuse as you have endured from them? And not only you, but our
neighbours Abenamacheios, Zemaco, Careca, Poncha, and all the other
caciques our friends? They carry off our wives and sons into captivity
before our very eyes, and they seize everything we possess as though
it were their booty. Shall we endure this? Me they have not yet
attacked, but the experience of others is enough for me, and I know
that the hour of my ruin is not far distant. Let us then unite
our forces and try to struggle against those who have maltreated
Abenamacheios and driven him from his house, and when these first are
killed the others will fear to attack us, or if they do so, it will be
with diminished numbers, and in any case it will be more endurable for
us." After exchanging their views, Abibaiba and Abraibes came to an
understanding and decided upon a day for beginning their campaign. But
events were not favourable to them. It so happened by chance that,
on the night previous to the day fixed for the attack, thirty of the
soldiers who had crossed the sierra against the cannibals were sent
back to relieve the garrison left at Rio Negro, in case of attack, and
also because the Spaniards were suspicious. The caciques rushed into
the village at daybreak with five hundred of their warriors armed
in native fashion and shouting wildly. They were ignorant of the
reinforcements that had arrived during the night. The soldiers
advanced to meet them, using their shields to protect themselves; and
first shooting arrows and javelins and afterwards using their native
swords, they fell upon their enemies. These native people, finding
themselves engaged with more adversaries than they had imagined, were
easily routed; the majority were killed like sheep in a panic. The
chiefs escaped. All those who were captured were sent as slaves to
Darien, where they were put to work in the fields.

After these events, and leaving that region pacified, the Spaniards
descended the river and returned to Darien, posting a guard of thirty
men, commanded by an officer, Hurtado,[1] to hold that province.
Hurtado descended the Rio Negro to rejoin his leader, Vasco Nunez, and
his companions. He was using one of those large native barques and had
with him twelve companions, a captive woman, and twenty-four slaves.
All at once four uru, that is to say, barques dug out of tree trunks,
attacked him on the flank, and overturned his boat. The Spaniards had
been tranquilly sailing along without dreaming of the possibility of
an attack, and their barque being suddenly overturned all those whom
the natives could catch were massacred or drowned, except two men, who
grasped some floating tree trunks and, concealing themselves in the
branches, let themselves drift, unseen by the enemy, and thus managed
to rejoin their companions.

[Note 1: _Furatado quodam decurione. Licet decurione more romano
non sint addicti praecise quindecim milites quos regat, centurionique
centum viginti octo, centuriones tamen ultro citroque centenarium
numerum, et ultro citroque denum, decurionem est consilium appellare;
nec enim hos servant ordines hispani ex amussim, cogimurque nomine
rebus et magistratibus dare_. Thus Peter Martyr for the second time
vindicates his knowledge of Roman military terms and his usage of
them. His explanation is extraneous to the narrative.]

Warned of the danger by those two men who had escaped death, the
Spaniards became suspicious of everything. They were alarmed for their
safety, and remembered that they only escaped a similar calamity at
Rio Negro because they had received the reinforcement of thirty men on
the night before the attack. They held frequent councils of war, but
in the midst of their hesitations they reached no decision. After
careful investigation they finally learned that five caciques had
fixed a day for the massacre of Christians. These five were: Abibaiba,
who lived in the swampy forest; Zemaco, who had been driven from his
home; Abraibes and Abenamacheios, the river chiefs; and Dobaiba, the
cacique of the fishermen, living at the extremity of the gulf called
Culata. This plan would have been carried out, and it was only by a
miracle, which we are bound to examine with leniency, that chance
disclosed the plot of the caciques. It is a memorable story and I will
tell it in a few words.

This Vasco Nunez, a man of action rather than of judgment, was an
egregious ruffian, who had obtained authority in Darien by force
rather than by consent of the colonists; amongst the numerous native
women he had carried off, there was one of remarkable beauty. One of
her brothers, who was an officer much favoured by the cacique Zemaco,
often came to visit her. He likewise had been driven out of his
country, but as he loved his sister warmly, he spoke to her in
conversation in the following words:

"Listen to me, my dear sister, and keep to yourself what I shall tell
you. The insolence of these men, who expelled us from our homes, is
such that the caciques of the country are resolved no longer to submit
to their tyranny. Five caciques [whom he named one after another] have
combined and have collected a hundred uru. Five thousand warriors on
land and water are prepared. Provisions have been collected in the
province of Tichiri, for the maintenance of these warriors, and the
caciques have already divided amongst themselves the heads and the
property of the Spaniards."

In revealing these things to his sister, the brother warned her to
conceal herself on a certain day, otherwise she might be killed in the
confusion of the fight. The conquering warrior gives no quarter to
those whom he vanquishes. He concluded by telling her the day fixed
for the attack. Women generally keep the fire better than they do a
secret,[2] and so it fell out that this young woman, either because
she loved Vasco Nunez or because in her panic she forgot her
relatives, her kinsmen, and neighbours as well as the caciques whom
she betrayed to their death, revealed the same to her lover, omitting
none of the details her brother had imprudently confided to her.
Vasco Nunez sent this Fulvia to invite her brother to return, and he
immediately responded to his sister's invitation. He was seized and
forced to confess that the cacique Zemaco, his master, had sent those
four uru for the massacre of the Spaniards, and that the plot had been
conceived by him. Zemaco took upon himself the task of killing
Vasco Nunez, and forty of his people whom he had sent as an act of
friendship to sow and cultivate Vasco's fields, had been ordered by
him to kill the leader with their agricultural tools. Vasco Nunez
habitually encouraged his labourers at their work by frequently
visiting them, and the cacique's men had never ventured to execute his
orders, because Vasco never went among them except on horseback, and
armed. When visiting his labourers he rode a mare and always carried a
spear in his hand, as men do in Spain; and it was for this reason that
Zemaco, seeing his wishes frustrated, had conceived the other plot
which resulted so disastrously for himself and his people.

[Note 2: Literally, _Puella vero, quia ferrum est quod feminae
observant, magis quam Catonianam gravitatem_.]

As soon as the conspiracy was discovered, Vasco Nunez, assembling
seventy men, ordered them to follow him, without however telling any
one either his destination or his intentions. He first rode to the
village of Zemaco, some ten miles distant, where he learned that
Zemaco had fled to Dabaiba, the cacique of the marshes of Culata. His
principal lieutenant (called in their language _sacchos_, just as
their caciques are called chebi) was seized, together with all his
other servants, and carried into captivity. Several other natives of
both sexes were likewise captured. Simultaneously Colmenares embarked
sixty soldiers in the four uru and set out up the river to look for
Zemaco. The young woman's brother served as guide. Arriving at the
village of Tichiri, where the provisions for the army had been
collected, Vasco Nunez took possession of the place and captured
the stores of different coloured wines, as we have already noted at
Comogra, and different kinds of native stores. The sacchos of Tichiri,
who had acted in a manner as quartermaster of the army, was captured
together with four of the principal officers, for they did not expect
the arrival of the Spaniards. The sacchos was hanged on a tree that he
had himself planted, and shot through with arrows in full view of
the natives, and the other officers were hanged by Colmenares on
scaffolds, to serve as an example to the others. This chastisement of
the conspirators so terrified the entire province that there was not
a person left to raise a finger against the torrent of Spanish wrath.
Peace was thus established, and their caciques bending their necks
beneath the yoke were not punished. The Spaniards enjoyed some days of
abundance, thanks to the well-filled storehouse they had captured at
Tichiri.[3]

[Note 3: This pitiful story of native treachery is frequently
repeated, and explains the enslavement, the downfall, and in parts,
the extermination of the American tribes. Everywhere they betrayed one
another to the final undoing of all.]

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