Book: Christopher Columbus, Volume 4
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Filson Young >> Christopher Columbus, Volume 4
["Their Highnesses order Don Juan de Fonseca to inform himself
in regard to this matter of the horses, and if it shall be
found true that this fraud was committed, those persons shall
be sent to their Highnesses to be punished: and also he is to
inform himself in regard to what is said of the other people,
and send the result in the examination to their Highnesses; and
in regard to these Squires, their Highnesses command that they
remain there and render service, since they belong to the
guards and servants of their Highnesses: and their Highnesses
order the Squires to give up the horses each time it is
necessary and the Admiral orders it, and if the horses receive
any injury through others using them, their Highnesses order
that the damage shall be paid to them by means of the Admiral.]
"Item. You will say to their Highnesses that more than 200 persons
have come here without wages, and there are some of them who render
good service. And as it is ordered that the others rendering
similar service should be paid: and as for these first three years
it would be of great benefit to have 1000 men here to settle, and
place this island and the rivers of gold in very great security, and
even though there were 100 horsemen nothing would be lost, but
rather it seems necessary, although their Highnesses will be able to
do without these horsemen until gold is sent: nevertheless, their
Highnesses must send to say whether wages shall be paid to these 200
persons, the same as to the others rendering good service, because
they are certainly necessary, as I have said in the beginning of
this memorandum.
["In regard to these 200 persons, who are here said to have
gone without wages, their Highnesses order that they shall take
the places of those who went for wages, who have failed or
shall fail to fulfil their engagements, if they are skilful and
satisfactory to the Admiral. And their Highnesses order the
Purser (Contador) to enrol them in place of those who fail to
fulfil their engagements, as the Admiral shall instruct him.]
"Item. As the cost of these people can be in some degree lightened
and the better part of the expense could be avoided by the same
means employed by other Princes in other places: it appears, that it
would be well to order brought in the ships, besides the other
things which are for the common maintenance and the medicines, shoes
and the skins from which to order the shoes made, common shirts and
others, jackets, linen, sack-coats, trowsers and cloths suitable for
wearing apparel, at reasonable prices: and other things like
conserves which are not included in rations and are for the
preservation of health, which things all the people here would
willingly receive to apply on their wages and if these were
purchased yonder in Spain by faithful Ministers who would act for
the advantage of their Highnesses, something would be saved.
Therefore you will learn the will of their Highnesses about this
matter, and if it appears to them to be of benefit to them, then it
must be placed in operation.
["This arrangement is to be in abeyance until the Admiral
writes more fully, and at another time they will send to order
Don Juan de Fonseca with Jimeno de Bribiesca to make provision
for the same.]
"Item. You will say to their Highnesses that inasmuch as yesterday
in the review people were found who were without arms, which I think
happened in part by that exchange which took place yonder in
Seville, or in the harbour when those who presented themselves armed
were left, and others were taken who gave something to those who
made the exchange, it seems that it would be well to order 200
cuirasses sent, and 100 muskets and 100 crossbows, and a large
quantity of arsenal supplies, which is what we need most, and all
these arms can be given to those who are unarmed.
["Already Don Juan de Fonseca has been written to make
provision for this.]
"Item. Inasmuch as some artisans who came here, such as masons and
other workmen, are married and have wives yonder in Spain, and would
like to have what is owing them from their wages given to their
wives or to the persons to whom they will send their requirements in
order that they may buy for them the things which they need here I
supplicate their Highnesses to order it paid to them, because it is
for their benefit to have these persons provided for here.
["Their Highnesses have already sent orders to Don Juan de
Fonseca to make provision for this matter.]
"Item. Because, besides the other things which are asked for there
according to the memoranda which you are carrying signed by my hand,
for the maintenance of the persons in good health as well as for the
sick ones, it would be very well to have fifty casks of molasses
(miel de azucar) from the island of Madeira, as it is the best
sustenance in the world and the most healthful, and it does not
usually cost more than two ducats per cask, without the cask: and if
their Highnesses order some caravel to stop there in returning, it
can be purchased and also ten cases of sugar, which is very
necessary; as this is the best season of the year to obtain it, I
say between the present time and the month of April, and to obtain
it at a reasonable price. If their Highnesses command it, the order
could be given, and it would not be known there for what place it is
wanted.
["Let Don Juan de Fonseca make provision for this matter.]
"Item. You will say to their Highnesses that although the rivers
contain gold in the quantity related by those who have seen it, yet
it is certain that the gold is not engendered in the rivers but
rather on the land, the waters of the rivers which flow by the mines
bringing it enveloped in the sands: and as among these rivers which
have been discovered there are some very large ones, there are
others so small that they are fountains rather than rivers, which
are not more than two fingers of water in depth, and then the source
from which they spring may be found: for this reason not only
labourers to gather it in the sand will be profitable, but others to
dig for it in the earth, which will be the most particular operation
and produce a great quantity. And for this, it will be well for
their Highnesses to send labourers, and from among those who work
yonder in Spain in the mines of Almaden, that the work may be done
in both ways. Although we will not await them here, as with the
labourers we have here we hope, with the aid of God, once the people
are in good health, to amass a good quantity of gold to be sent on
the first caravels which return.
["This will be fully provided for in another manner. In the
meantime their Highnesses order Don Yuan de Fonseca to send the
best miners he can obtain; and to write to Almaden to have the
greatest possible number taken from there and sent.]
"Item. You will entreat their Highnesses very humbly on my part, to
consider Villacorta as speedily recommended to them, who, as their
Highnesses know, has rendered great service in this business, and
with a very good will, and as I know him, he is a diligent person
and very devoted to their service: it will be a favour to me if he
is given some confidential charge for which he is fitted, and where
he can show his desire to serve them and his diligence: and this you
will obtain in such a way that Villacorta may know by the result,
that what he has done for me when I needed him profits him in this
manner.
["It will be done thus.]
"Item. That the said Mosen Pedro and Gaspar and Beltran and others
who have remained here gave up the captainship of caravels, which
have now returned, and are not receiving wages: but because they are
persons who must be employed in important matters and of confidence,
their compensation, which must be different from the others, has not
been determined. You will entreat their Highnesses on my part to
determine what is to be given them each year, or by the month,
according to their service.
"Done in the city of Isabella, January 30, 1494.
["This has already been replied to above, but as it is stated
in the said item that they enjoy their salary, from the present
time their Highnesses order that their wages shall be paid to
all of them from the time they left their captainships."]
This document is worth studying, written as it was in circumstances that
at one moment looked desperate and at another were all hope. Columbus
was struggling manfully with difficulties that were already beginning to
be too much for him. The Man from Genoa, with his guiding star of faith
in some shore beyond the mist and radiance of the West--see into what
strange places and to what strange occupations this star has led him!
The blue visionary eyes, given to seeing things immediately beyond the
present horizon, must fix themselves on accounts and requisitions, on the
needs of idle, aristocratic, grumbling Spaniards; must fix themselves
also on that blank void in the bellies of his returning ships, where the
gold ought to have been. The letter has its practical side; the
requisitions are made with good sense and a grasp of the economic
situation; but they have a deeper significance than that. All this talk
about little ewe lambs, wine and bacon (better than the last lot, if it
please your Highnesses), little yearling calves, and fifty casks of
molasses that can be bought a ducat or two cheaper in Madeira in the
months of April and May than at any other time or place, is only half
real. Columbus fills his Sovereigns' ears with this clamour so that he
shall not hear those embarrassing questions that will inevitably be asked
about the gold and the spices. He boldly begins his letter with the old
story about "indications of spices" and gold "in incredible quantities,"
with a great deal of "moreover" and "besides," and a bold, pompous,
pathetic "I will undertake"; and then he gets away from that subject by
wordy deviations, so that to one reading his letter it really might seem
as though the true business of the expedition was to provide Coronel,
Mosen Pedro, Gaspar, Beltran, Gil Garcia, and the rest of them with work
and wages. Everything that occurs to him, great or little, that makes it
seem as though things were humming in the new settlement, he stuffs into
this document, shovelling words into the empty hulls of the ships, and
trying to fill those bottomless pits with a stream of talk. A system of
slavery is boldly and bluntly sketched; the writer, in the hurry and
stress of the moment, giving to its economic advantages rather greater
prominence than to its religious glories. The memorandum, for all its
courageous attempt to be very cool and orderly and practical, gives us,
if ever a human document did, a picture of a man struggling with an
impossible situation which he will not squarely face, like one who should
try to dig up the sea-shore and keep his eyes shut the while.
In the royal comments written against the document one seems to trace the
hand of Isabella rather than of Ferdinand. Their tone is matter-of-fact,
cool, and comforting, like the coolness of a woman's hand placed on a
feverish brow. Isabella believed in him; perhaps she read between the
lines of this document, and saw, as we can see, how much anxiety and
distress were written there; and her comments are steadying and
encouraging. He has done well; what he asks is being attended to; their
Highnesses are well informed in regard to this and that matter; suitable
provision will be made for everything; but let him endeavour that the
amount of this gold may be known as precisely as possible. There is no
escaping from that. The Admiral (no one knows it better than himself)
must make good his dazzling promises, and coin every boastful word into a
golden excelente of Spain. Alas! he must no longer write about the lush
grasses, the shining rivers, the brightly coloured parrots, the gaudy
flies and insects, the little singing birds, and the nights that are like
May in Cordova. He must find out about the gold; for it has come to grim
business in the Earthly Paradise.