1492

by Mary Johnston

  CHAPTER XXIII

  GUACANAGARI'S town was much perhaps as was Goth town, Frank town, Saxontown, Latin town, sufficient time ago. As for clothed and unclothed,that may be to some degree a matter of cold or warm weather. We had notseen that ever it was cold in this land.

  Guacanagari feasted us with great dignity and earnestness, for he andhis people held it a momentous thing our coming here, our being here.Utias we had and iguana, fish, cassava bread, potato, many a deliciousfruit, and that mild drink that they made. And we had calabashes,trenchers and fingers, stone knives with which certain officers of thefeast decorously divided the meat, small gourds for cups, water forcleansing, napkins of broad leaves. It was a great and comely feast. Butbefore the feast, as in Cuba, the dance.

  I should say that three hundred young men and maidens danced. Theyadvanced, they retreated, they cowered, they pressed forward. They madesupplication, arms to heaven or forehead to ground, they received, theywere grateful, they circled fast in ease of mind, they hungered againand were filled again, they flowed together, they made a great square,chanting proudly!

  Fray Ignatio beside me glowered, so far as so good a man couldglower. But Juan Lepe said, "It is doubt and difficulty, approach,reconciliation, holy triumph! They are acting out long pilgrimages andarrivals at sacred cities and hopes for greater cities. It is much thesame as in Seville or Rome!" Whereupon he looked at me in astonishment,and Jayme de Marchena said to Juan Lepe, "Hold thy tongue!"

  Dance and the feast over, it became the Admiral's turn. He was set notto seem dejected, not to give any Spaniard nor any Indian reason to say,"This Genoese--or this god--does not sustain misfortune!" But hesat calm, pleased with all; brotherly, fatherly, by that big, easy,contented cacique. Now he would furnish the entertainment! Among uswe had one Diego Minas, a huge man and as mighty a bowman as any inFlanders or England. Him the Admiral now put forward with his greatcrossbow and long arrows. A stir ran around. "Carib! Carib!" We made outthat those mysterious Caribs had bows and arrows, though not great oneslike this. Guacanagari employed gestures and words that Luis Torres andI strove to understand. We gathered that several times in the memory ofman the Caribs had come in many canoes, warred dreadfully, killedand taken away. More than that, somewhere in Hayti or Quisquaya orHispaniola were certain people who knew the weapon. "Caonabo!" Herepeated the name with respect and disliking. "Caonabo, Caonabo!"Perhaps the Caribs had made a settlement.

  Diego fastened a leaf upon the bark of a tree and from a great distancetransfixed it with an arrow, then in succession sent four others againstthe trunk, making precisely the form of a cross. The Indians cried,"Hai! Hai!" But when the four harquebus men set up their iron rests,fixed the harquebuses, and firing cut leaves and twigs from the sametree, there was a louder crying. And when there was dragged forth,charged with powder and fired, one of the lombards taken from the _SantaMaria_, wider yet sprang the commotion. Pedro Gutierrez and a youngcavalier from the _Nina_ deigned to show lance play, and Vicente Pinzonwho had served against the Moors took a great sword and with it carvedcalabashes and severed green boughs. The sword was very marvelous tothem. We might have danced for them for Spain knows how to dance, or wemight have sung for them, for our mariners sing at sea. But these werenot the superior things we wished to show them.

  Guacanagari, big and easy and gentle, said, "Live here, you who are sogreat and good! We will take you into the people. We shall be brothers."We understood them that the great white heron was their guardian spiritand would be ours. I said, "They do not think of it as just thosestalking, stilly standing birds! It is a name for something hovering,brooding, caring for them."

  The Viceroy spoke with energy. "Tell them of Father, Son and HolyGhost!"

  Fray Ignatio stood and spoke, gentle and plain. Diego Colon made whatheadway he could. Guacanagari listened, attentive. The Franciscan had acertainty that presently he might begin to baptize. His face glowed. Iheard him say to the Admiral, "If it be possible, senor, leave mehere when you return to Spain! I will convert this chief and all hispeople--by the time you come again there shall be a church!"

  "Let me ponder it yet a while," answered the other.

  He was thoughtful when he went back to the _Nina_. Vicente Pinzon, too,was anxious for light. "This ship is crowded to sinking! If we meetwretched weather, or if sickness break out, returning, we shall bein bad case!" Roderigo Sanchez also had his word. "Is it not veryimportant, senor, that we should get the tidings to the Sovereigns? Andwe have now just this one small ship, and so far to go, and all mannerof dangers!"

  "Aye, it is important!" said the Admiral. "Let me think it out, senor."

  He had not slept at all, thought Juan Lepe, when next morning he cameamong us. But he looked resolved, hardy to accomplish. He had his plan,and he gave it to us in his deep voice that always thrilled with muchbeside the momentary utterance. We would build a fort here on shore,hard by this village, felling wood for it and using also the timbersof the _Santa Maria_. We would mount there her two guns and provide anarsenal with powder, shot, harquebuses and bows. Build a fort and callit La Navidad, because of Christmas day when was the wreck. It shouldhave a garrison of certainly thirty men, a man for each year of OurLord's life when He began his mission. So many placed in Hispaniolawould much lighten the _Nina_, which indeed must be lightened in orderwith safety to recross Ocean-Sea. For yes, we would go back to Palos!Go, and come again with many and better ships, with hidalgos andmissionary priests, and very many men! In the meantime so many shouldstay at La Navidad.

  "In less than a year--much less, I promise it--I the Admiral will behere again at La Navidad, when will come happy greeting between brothersin the greatest service of our own or many ages! Sea and land, God willkeep us so long as we are His!"

  All loved Christopherus Columbus that day. None was to be forced tostay at La Navidad. It was easy to gain thirty; in the end there tarriedthirty-eight.

  The building of the fort became a pleasurable enterprise. We brokeup with singing the Santa Maria, and with her bones built the walls.Guacanagari and his people helped. All was hurried. The Admiral andViceroy, now that his mind was made up, would depart as soon as mightbe.

  We built La Navidad where it might view the sea, upon a hillside abovea brown river sliding out to ocean. Beyond the stream, in the groves, aquarter-league away, stood the hundred huts of Guarico. We built a towerand storehouse and wall of wood and we digged around all some kind ofmoat, and mounted three lombards. All that we could lift from the SantaMaria and what the _Nina_ could spare us of arms, conveniences and foodwent into our arsenal and storehouse. We had a bubbling spring withinthe enclosure. When all was done the tower of La Navidad, though aninfant beside towers of Europe, might suffice for the first here of itsbrood. It was done in a week from that shipwreck.

  Who was to be left at La Navidad? Leave was given to volunteer and themariners' list was soon made up, good men and not so good. From the poopthere volunteered Pedro Gutierrez and Roderigo de Escobedo. The Admiraldid not block their wish, but he gave the command not to Escobedo whowished it, but to Diego de Arana whom he named to stay, having persuadedhim who would rather have returned with the _Nina_. But he couldtrust Diego de Arana, and, with reason, he was not sure of those otherhidalgos. De Arana stayed and fulfilled his trust, and died a brave man.Fray Ignatio would stay. "Bring me back, Senor, a goodly bell for thechurch of La Navidad! A bell and a font."

  Juan Lepe would stay. There needed a physician. But also Jayme deMarchena would stay. He thought it out. Six months had not abolished theHoly Office nor converted to gentleness Don Pedro nor the Dominican.

  But the Admiral had assigned me to return with the _Nina_. I told him inthe evening between the sunset and the moonrise what was the difficulty.He was a man profoundly religious, and also a docile son of the Church.But I knew him, and I knew that he would find reasons in the Bible fornot giving me up. The deep man, the whole man, was not in the grasp ofbishop or inquisitor or papal bull.

  He agreed. "Aye, it
is wiser! I count two months to Spain, seeing thatwe may not have so favorable a voyage. Three or maybe four there, forour welcome at court, and for the gathering a fleet--easy now to gatherfor all will flock to it, and masters and owners cry, 'Take my ship--andmine!' Two months again to recross. Look for me it may be in July, itmay be in August, it may be in September!"

  The Viceroy spoke to us, gathered by our fort, under the banner ofCastile, with behind us on hill brow a cross gleaming. Again, all thatwe had done for the world and might further do! Again, we returning onthe _Nina_ or we remaining at La Navidad were as crusaders, knights ofthe Order of the Purpose of God! "Cherish good--oh, men of the sea andthe land, cherish good! Who betrays here betrays almost as Judas! ThePurpose of God is Strength with Wisdom and Charity which only can makejoy! Therefore be ye here at La Navidad strong, wise and charitable!"

  He said more, and he gave many an explicit direction, but that was thegist of all. Strength, wisdom and charity.

  Likewise he spoke to the Indians and they listened and promisedand meant good. An affection had sprung between Guacanagari andChristopherus Columbus. So different they looked! and yet in the breastof each dwelled much guilelessness and the ability to wonder and revere.The Viceroy saw in this big, docile ruler of Guarico however far thatmight extend, one who would presently be baptized and become a Christianchief, man of the Viceroy of Hispaniola, as the latter was man of theSovereigns of Spain. All his people would follow Guacanagari. He sawChristendom here in the west, and a great feudal society, acknowledgingCastile for overlord, and Alexander the Sixth as its spiritual ruler.

  Guacanagari may have seen friends in the gods, and especially in thistheir cacique, who with others that they would bring, would be drawninto Guarico and made one and whole with the people of the heron. Buthe never saw Guacanagari displanted--never saw Europe armed and warlike,hungry and thirsty.

  The _Nina_ and La Navidad bade with tears each the other farewell. Itwas the second of January, fourteen hundred and ninety-three. We hadmass under the palm trees, by the cross, above the fort. Fray Ignatioblessed the going, blessed the staying. We embraced, we loved oneanother, we parted. The _Nina_ was so small a ship, even there justbefore us on the blue water! So soon, so soon, the wind blowing from theland, she was smaller yet, smaller, smaller, a cock boat, a chip, gone!

  Thirty-eight white men watched her from the hill above the fort, andof the thirty-eight Juan Lepe was the only one who saw the Admiral comeagain.