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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)






BOOK VI


In the general assembly convoked shortly afterwards, the colonists
unanimously decided to send an envoy to Hispaniola to ask for
reinforcements and for the appointment of a judge. The same envoy
would go on to Spain where he would first explain to the Admiral and
his officers and afterwards to the King, all that had happened, and
would seek to persuade his Majesty to send the thousand soldiers the
son of Comogre had declared would be necessary for the expedition
across the mountains to the South Sea. Vasco Nunez sought to be chosen
for this mission, but his companions refused him their votes, and his
adherents would not allow him to go; not only because they would have
felt themselves abandoned, but because they suspected that once out of
it, Vasco would not return to such a furnace of calamities, following
the example of Valdivia and Zamudio, whom they had sent off in
the month of January, and who, they thought, had no intention of
returning. In this latter they were wrong, as we shall show in the
proper place, for those men were dead.

After several ballotings without result, the colonists finally chose
a certain Juan Quevedo, a serious man of mature age, who was agent of
the royal treasury in Darien. They had full confidence that Quevedo
would conduct this business successfully, and they counted on his
return because he had brought his wife with him to the new world and
was leaving her in the colony as a pledge. As soon as Quevedo was
elected, several opinions concerning an associate for him were
expressed. Some people said it was risky to trust such an important
affair to one man; not that they mistrusted Quevedo, but human life is
uncertain, particularly if one considers that people accustomed to a
climate near the equator would be exposed on returning northwards to
frequent changes of climate and food. It was necessary, therefore, to
provide an associate for Quevedo, so that, if one died the other
might survive and if both escaped death, the King would place more
confidence in their dual report. Much time was spent in debating this
point, and finally they decided to choose Roderigo Colmenares, whose
name I have frequently mentioned. He was a man of large experience; in
his youth he had travelled by land and sea over all Europe, and he had
taken part in the Italian wars against the French. What decided the
colonists to choose Colmenares was the fact that, if he left, they
could count on his return, because he had purchased properties in
Darien and had spent large sums in planting. He hoped to sell his
crops as they stood, and to obtain the gold of his companions in
exchange. He therefore left the care of his estates to a citizen of
Madrid, a certain Alonzo Nunez, who was his comrade. This man was a
judge, and had almost been chosen by the colonists as an envoy in
place of his friend Colmenares; and indeed he would have been elected
but that one of his companions explained that he had a wife at Madrid.
It was feared, therefore, that the tears of his wife might prevent
him from ever returning, so Colmenares, being free, was chosen as the
associate of Quevedo. There being no larger ship at their disposal,
both men sailed on a brigantine, the fourth day of the calends of
November in the year of grace 1512.

During their voyage they were buffeted by many tempests, and were
finally dashed upon the western coast of that large island which for a
long time was thought to be a continent, and which in my First Decade
I explained was called Cuba. They were reduced to the most extreme
want, for three months had elapsed since they left Darien. They were,
therefore, forced to land to seek some assistance from the islanders,
and by chance they approached on that side of the island where
Valdivia had also been driven ashore by tempests. Ah! unhappy
creatures! you colonists of Darien, who await the return of Valdivia
to assuage your sufferings. Hardly had he landed before he and his
companions were massacred by the Cubans, the caravel broken to pieces
and left upon the shore. Upon beholding some planks of that caravel
half buried in the sand, the envoys bewailed the death of Valdivia and
his companions. They found no bodies, for these had either been thrown
into the sea, or had served as food for the cannibals, for these
latter frequently made raids in Cuba in order to procure human flesh.
Two islanders who had been captured, related the death of Valdivia,
which had been brought about by the love of gold. These islanders
confessed that, having learned from the talk of one of Valdivia's
companions that he had gold, they had plotted to assassinate him
because they too loved gold necklaces.

Horrified by this catastrophe, and feeling themselves unable to avenge
their companions the Spaniards decided to fly from that barbarous land
and the monstrous cruelty of those savages. They therefore continued
their voyage, stunned by the massacre of their companions and
suffering severely from want. After leaving the southern coast of Cuba
behind them, a thousand untoward events still further delayed them.
They learned that Hojeda had also landed and that he had been driven
by storms upon these coasts, where he led a wretched existence. He
endured a thousand annoyances and a thousand different kinds of
sufferings. After having suffered the loss of his companions or
witnessed them gasping from hunger, he had been carried to Hispaniola
almost alone.

He arrived there hardly alive, and died from the effects of the wound
he had received from the natives of Uraba. Enciso, the judge elect,
had sailed along this same coast, but with better fortune, for he had
had favourable weather.

He himself told me these things at Court, and he added that the
natives of Cuba had received him kindly, especially the people of a
certain cacique called El Comendador [the Commander]. When this chief
was about to be baptised by some Christians who were passing through,
he asked them how the governor of the neighbouring island of
Hispaniola was called, and he was answered that he was called El
Comendador.[1] The governor of that island was at that period, an
illustrious knight of the Order of Calatrava, and the knights of that
Order take the title of Commander. The cacique promptly declared that
he wished to be called El Comendador; and he it was who had given
hospitality to Enciso, when he landed, and had supplied all his wants.

[Note 1: Don Nicholas de Ovando, Comendador de Lares, and later
Grand Master of the Order of Calatrava.]

According to Enciso, now is the time, Most Holy Father from whom we
receive our religion and our beliefs, to preach to the islanders. An
unknown sailor,[2] who was ill, had been left by some Spaniards who
were coasting the length of Cuba, with the cacique El Comendador, and
this sailor was very kindly received by the cacique and his people.
When he recovered his health, he frequently served the cacique as
lieutenant in his expeditions, for the islanders are often at war one
with another; and El Comendador was always victorious. The sailor
was an ignorant creature, but a man of good heart, who cultivated
a peculiar devotion for the Blessed Virgin, Mother of God. He even
carried about him, as constantly as his clothes, a picture of the
Blessed Virgin, very well painted on paper, and he declared to El
Comendador that it was because of it that he was always victorious.
He also persuaded the latter to abandon the zemes the people adored,
because he declared that these nocturnal goblins were the enemies of
souls, and he urged the cacique to choose for his patron the Virgin
Mother of God, if he desired all his undertakings, both in peace and
in war, to succeed. The Virgin Mother of God was never deaf to the
invocation of her holy name by a pure heart. The sailor obtained a
ready hearing from these naked islanders. Upon the request of the
cacique he gave him the image of the Virgin, and consecrated a church
and an altar to it. The zemes, whom their ancestors had worshipped
were abandoned. These zemes, Most Holy Father, are the idols made out
of cotton, of which I have spoken at length in the tenth book of my
First Decade. Following the instructions of the sailor, the cacique El
Comendador and all his people of both sexes went each day at sunset
to the chapel dedicated to the Virgin. Entering, they knelt, and
reverently bowing their heads and joining their hands they saluted the
image by repeated invocations, _Ave Maria, Ave Maria_; for there were
very few who had learnt the whole prayer.

[Note 2: Las Casas tells an identical story concerning Alonso
de Hojeda, who gave an image of the Blessed Virgin to a cacique of
Cueyba. During the campaign which ended in the conquest of Cuba, Las
Casas offered to trade a Flemish statue for the one Hojeda had left
there, but the cacique refused, and taking his image, he fled into
the woods, lest he should be forced to exchange. The two stories,
doubtless, refer to the same incident, though it seems strange that
Peter Martyr should not have identified Hojeda as the "unknown
sailor." See Las Casas, _Hist. de las Indias_, tom, iv., cap. xix.:
_B. Las Casas, his Life, his Apostolate, and his Writings_, cap iv.]

When Enciso and his companions landed there, the Indians took them by
the hands and joyfully led them to the chapel, declaring that they
were going to show them something wonderful. They pointed to the holy
image surrounded, as though with a garland, by dishes full of food and
drink. They offered these presents to the image just as they formerly
did in their own religion to the zemes. They say that by such
offerings they provide for the image in case it should be hungry, for
they believe that it might suffer from hunger.

Listen now to a most curious story concerning the assistance they
believe they have received from that image of the Blessed Virgin, and
by my faith, Most Holy Father, one would willingly believe it to be
true. According to the report of our men, the effect of the fervent
piety which animates those simple souls for the Blessed Virgin Mother
of God is such, that they almost constrain her to come down from
heaven to help them whenever they weaken in a struggle. Has not God
left pity, love, and charity amongst men, by the practice of which
they may merit His grace and that of the heavenly host? The Virgin
could never abandon those who with pure heart invoke her aid. Now El
Comendador and all his chiefs declared to Enciso and his companions,
that when the sailor had carried the holy image with him into battle
in full view of both armies, the zemes of the enemy turned their heads
and trembled in the presence of the image of the Virgin; for it is the
custom for each army to carry its own protecting zemes into battle.
Not only had they beheld the holy image but also a woman, robed in
fair white draperies, who, in the heat of the battle, sustained
them against their enemies. The latter also declared that there had
appeared opposite to them a woman with menacing face, carrying a
sceptre, who encouraged the opposing army and that this apparition
made them tremble with fear.

El Comendador declared that after the sailor had been taken away by
some Christians who had landed at that place, he had faithfully obeyed
his instructions. He further related that a heated altercation had
broken out with his neighbours, as to which of the zemes was most
powerful. The controversy led to frequent conflicts, in which the
Blessed Virgin had never failed them, but had appeared in every
battle, grasping the victory with her small hands from the most
formidable of the hostile forces. The Spaniards asked what their war
cry was, and they replied that, in obedience to the instructions of
the sailor they only shouted, in the Spanish language, "St. Mary to
the rescue!" It was the only language the sailor spoke. In the midst
of these cruel wars they made the following agreement; instead of
putting a fixed number of champions into the field, as was often done
by the armies of other nations of antiquity, or instead of settling
their disputes by arbitration, two young men of each tribe should have
their hands tied behind their backs as tightly as he who bound them
chose. They would then be led to a lofty place, and the zemes of the
tribe whose champion most quickly undid his bonds should be acclaimed
as the most powerful. The agreement was made, and the young men
of both sides were thus bound. El Comendador's people tied their
adversary, while their enemies tied one of his men. Three different
times the trial was repeated, and each time after invoking their
zemes, the young men tried to free themselves from their bonds. El
Comendador's champions repeated the invocation, "St. Mary, help me,
St. Mary, help me!" and immediately the Virgin, robed in white,
appeared. She drove away the demon, and touching the bonds of the
Christian champion with the wand she carried, not only was he at once
freed, but the bonds were added to those of his opponent, so that the
enemy found the young Christian not only free, but their own champion
with double bonds. They were not content with this first defeat,
and attributed it to some human trickery which they did not believe
demonstrated the superiority of the divinity. They therefore asked
that four men of venerable age and tried morality should be chosen
from each tribe, and should stand on either side of each young man, in
order to verify whether or not there was any trickery. O what
purity of soul and blessed simplicity, worthy of the golden age!
El Comendador and his advisers yielded to this condition with a
confidence equal to that with which the sufferer from an effusion of
blood sought the remedy for his malady; or Peter, whose place, Most
Holy Father, you occupy, marched upon the waves when he beheld our
Lord. The conditions being accepted, the young men were bound and the
eight judges took their places. The signal was given, and each one
called upon his zemes, to come to his assistance. The two champions
beheld the zemes with a long tail and an enormous mouth furnished with
teeth and horns just like the images. This devil sought to untie the
young man who was acting as his champion, but at the first invocation
of the Comendador the Virgin appeared. The judges, with wide open eyes
and attentive minds, waited to see what would happen. She touched the
devil with the wand she was carrying and put him to flight, afterwards
causing the bonds of her champion to transfer themselves to the body
of his adversary. This miracle struck terror into the Comendador's
enemies, and they recognised that the zemes of the Virgin was more
powerful than their own.

The consequence of this event was, that when the news spread that
Christians had landed in Cuba, the Comendador's neighbours, who were
his bitter enemies, and had often made war upon him, sent to Enciso
asking for priests to baptise them. Enciso immediately despatched two
priests who were with him, and in one day one hundred and thirty men
of the Comendador's enemies were baptised and became his firm friends
and allies. We have in another place noted that chickens had greatly
increased in the country, owing to the care of our compatriots. Each
native who had received baptism presented the priest with a cock or
a hen, but not with a capon, because they have not yet learned to
castrate the chickens and make capons of them. They also brought
salted fish and cakes made of fresh flour. Six of the neophytes
accompanied the priests when they returned to the coasts, carrying
these presents, which procured the Spaniards a splendid Easter. They
had left Darien only two days before the Sunday of St. Lazarus, and
Easter overtook them when they were doubling the last promontory of
Cuba. In response to the petition of the Comendador they left with him
a Spaniard, who volunteered for the purpose of teaching the cacique's
subjects and their neighbours the Angelic Salutation, their idea being
that the more words of the prayer to the Virgin they knew, the better
disposed she would be to them.

Enciso agreed, after which he resumed his course to Hispaniola, which
was not far distant. From thence he betook himself to the King, who
was then in residence at Valladolid, where I talked intimately with
him. Enciso seriously influenced the King against the adventurer Vasco
Nunez, and secured his condemnation. I have wished, Most Holy Father,
to furnish you these particulars concerning the religion of the
natives. They reach me not only from Enciso, but from a number of
other most trustworthy personages. I have done this, that Your
Beatitude might be convinced of the docility of this race, and the
ease with which they might be instructed in the ceremonies of our
religion. Their conversion is not to be accomplished from one day to
another, and it is only little by little that they will accept the
evangelical law, of which you are the dispenser. Thus shall you see
the number of the sheep composing your flock increased each day. But
let us return to the story of the envoys from Darien.



BOOK VII


The journey from Darien to Hispaniola may be made in eight days
or even less, if the wind is astern. Because of storms the envoys
occupied a hundred days in crossing. They stopped some days at
Hispaniola where they transacted their business with the Admiral and
the other officials, after which they embarked on the merchant vessels
which lay ready freighted and plied between Hispaniola and Spain. It
was not, however, till the calends of May of the year after their
departure from Darien, that they arrived at the capital. Quevedo and
Colmenares, the two envoys of the colonists of Darien, arrived there
on the fifteenth of May, of the year 1513. Coming as they did from
the Antipodes, from a country hitherto unknown and inhabited by naked
people, they were received with honour by Juan de Fonseca, to whom the
direction of colonial affairs had been entrusted. In recognition of
his fidelity to his sovereigns, other popes have successively bestowed
on him the bishoprics of Beca, afterwards Cordova, Palencia, and
Rosano; and Your Holiness has just now raised him to the bishopric
of Burgos. Being the first Almoner and Counsellor of the King's
household, Your Holiness has in addition appointed him commissary
general for the royal indulgences, and the crusade against the Moors.

Quevedo and Colmenares were presented by the Bishop of Burgos to the
Catholic King, and the news they brought pleased his Majesty and all
his courtiers, because of their extreme novelty. A look at these men
is enough to demonstrate the insalubrious climate and temperature of
Darien, for they are as yellow as though they suffered from liver
complaint, and are puffy, though they attribute their condition to the
privations they have endured. I heard about all they had done from the
captains Zamudio and Enciso; also through another bachelor of laws,
called Baecia, who had scoured those countries; also from the ship's
captain Vincent Yanez [Pinzon], who was familiar with those coasts;
from Alonzo Nunez and from a number of subalterns who had sailed along
those coasts, under the command of these captains. Not one of those
who came to Court failed to afford me the pleasure, whether verbally
or in writing, of reporting to me everything he had learned. True
it is that I have been neglectful of many of those reports, which
deserved to be kept, and have only preserved such as would, in my
opinion, please the lovers of history. Amidst such a mass of material
I am obliged necessarily to omit something in order that my narrative
may not be too diffuse.

Let us now relate the events provoked by the arrival of the envoys.
Before Quevedo and Colmenares arrived, the news had already been
spread of the dramatic end of the first leaders, Hojeda, Nicuesa, and
Juan de la Cosa, that illustrious navigator who had received a royal
commission as pilot. It was known that the few surviving colonists at
Darien were in a state of complete anarchy, taking no heed to convert
the simple tribes of that region to our religion and giving no
attention to acquiring information regarding those countries. It was
therefore decided to send out a representative who would deprive the
usurpers of the power they had seized without the King's license, and
correct the first disorders. This mission was entrusted to Pedro Arias
d'Avila, a citizen of Segovia, who was called in Spain by the nickname
of _El Galan_, because of his prowess in the jousts. No sooner was
this news published at the Court than the envoys from Darien attempted
to deprive Pedro Arias of the command. There were numerous and
pressing petitions to the King to accomplish this; but the first
Almoner, the Bishop of Burgos whose business it is to stop such
intrigues, promptly spoke to the King when informed of this one, in
the following terms:

"Pedro Arias, O Most Catholic King, is a brave man, who has often
risked his life for Your Majesty, and who we know by long experience
is well adapted to command troops. He signally distinguished himself
in the wars against the Moors, where he comported himself as became
a valiant soldier and a prudent officer. In my opinion, it would
be ungracious to withdraw his appointment in response to the
representations of envious persons. Let this good man, therefore,
depart under fortunate auspices; let this devoted pupil of Your
Majesty, who has lived from infancy in the palace, depart."

The King, acting on the advice of the Bishop of Burgos, confirmed the
appointment of Pedro Arias, and even increased the powers conferred
upon him. Twelve hundred soldiers were raised by the Bishop of Burgos,
at the royal expense, to form the troop of Pedro Arias who, with the
majority of them, left the Court at Valladolid about the calends of
October, in the year 1513, for Seville, a town celebrated for its
numerous population and its wool. It was at Seville that the royal
agents were to equip the remainder of his soldiers and deliver to him
the provisions and everything necessary for such a great enterprise.
For it is there that the King has established his office charged
exclusively with colonial affairs. All the merchants, coming and
going, appear there to render account of the cargoes they have brought
from the new countries, and of the gold they export. This office is
called India House.[1]

[Note 1: _Domum Indicae Contractationis vocant. Casa de
Contractacion_, or Casa de Indias.]

Pedro Arias found two thousand young soldiers in excess of his
number awaiting him at Seville; he likewise found a goodly number of
avaricious old men, the majority of whom asked merely to be allowed to
follow him at their own cost, without receiving the royal pay. Rather
than overcrowd his ships and to spare his supplies, he refused to take
any of the latter. Care was taken that no foreigner should mingle with
the Spaniards, without the King's permission, and for this reason I am
extremely astonished that a certain Venetian, Aloisio Cadamosto, who
has written a history of the Portuguese, should write when mentioning
the actions of the Spaniards, "We have done; we have seen; we have
been"; when, as a matter of fact, he has neither done nor seen any
more than any other Venetian. Cadamosto borrowed and plagiarised
whatever he wrote, from the first three books of my first three
Decades, that is to say, those which I addressed to the Cardinals
Ascanio and Arcimboldo, who were living at the time when the events
I described were happening. He evidently thought that my works would
never be given to the public, and it may be that he came across
them in the possession of some Venetian ambassador; for the most
illustrious Senate of that Republic sent eminent men to the Court of
the Catholic Kings, to some of whom I willingly showed my writings. I
readily consented that copies should be taken. Be that as it may, this
excellent Aloisio Cadamosto has sought to claim for himself what was
the work of another. He has related the great deeds of the Portuguese,
but whether he witnessed them, as he pretends, or has merely profited
by the labour of another, I am unable to state. _Vivat et ipse marte
suo_.

Nobody, who had not been enrolled by the royal agents, as a soldier,
in the King's pay was allowed to go on board the vessels of Pedro
Arias. In addition to these regulars there were some others, including
one Francisco Cotta, a compatriot of mine, and thanks to a royal
order I obtained for him, he was allowed to go to the New World as
a volunteer with Pedro Arias. But for this he would not have been
permitted to depart. Now let the Venetian, Cadamosto, go on and write
that he has seen everything, while I, who for twenty-six years have
lived, not without credit, at the Court of the Catholic King, have
only been able by the greatest efforts to obtain authorisation for
one foreigner to sail. Some Genoese, but very few, and that at
the instance of the Admiral, son of the first discoverer of those
countries, succeeded in obtaining a like authorisation; but to no one
else was permission granted.