A mutuality of material interest made such an agreement possible. So also did the personal qualities of these men. Don Francisco was a courtier and a gentleman, renowned for his exquisite manners. His letters suggest qualities of intelligence, cultivation, decency, and sympathy for others. Young Champlain was by all accounts a serious and large-spirited young man, very engaging in his Saintonge manners and happily endowed with an easy gift for getting on with others. He was able to work with Catholics and Calvinists, merchants and priests, scholars and soldiers, French corsairs and Spanish Dons.
The arrangement was a private understanding. The parties appear not to have consulted the Casa de Contratación, and nothing has yet been found in Spanish records of the voyage that mentions Champlain by name. This was an informal agreement, like many others in the Spanish fleet. San Julian alone was later reported to have had no fewer than six “clandestine” Spanish and Italian passengers aboard, not counting Champlain and his personal servant.35
Champlain’s name did not appear on surviving lists of the ship’s officers. He was not formally recognized as a supercargo, or as the owner’s legal representative with powers of attorney. Champlain explained his role in another way. “My uncle … committed to me a responsibility to watch over the said vessel, which I accepted very willingly.” Historian François-Marc Gagnon explains that “the responsibility given to Champlain was one of surveillance, rather than command.” In that anomalous role, Champlain returned to his berth aboard San Julian and prepared to sail. He wrote happily, “I had occasion to rejoice, seeing my hopes revive.”36
On February 3, 1599, the Spanish fleet weighed anchor at Sanlucar de Barrameda and crossed the bar at the river’s mouth, outward bound for America. The ships made a magnificent sight as they sailed into the deep blue water of the open sea. The great galleons were bright in their brilliant paintwork of scarlet and saffron, the national colors of Spain. Blazoned on high bulwarks were rows of red and yellow shields, shining in the light. From mastheads flew Spanish flags, royal standards, imperial ensigns with the double eagles of the House of Hapsburg, the broad pennants of admirals and generals, and the long pennants of each ship. Behind the galleons came large merchantmen such as San Julian. Each large ship was accompanied by a small tender that Champlain called a patache. San Julians patache was a little vessel called Sandoval.37
In open water, the Spanish pilots set a course with a favoring breeze behind them. Aboard each ship, helmsmen on the puente, or steering deck, strained against the heavy cana, or tiller, as sailing masters carefully trimmed their billowing sails to catch every knot of speed. Working at the rails were experienced Spanish navigators who well understood the winds and currents of their “ocean sea,” as they called it in a proprietary way. They thought of the Atlantic as a private lake, and guarded their knowledge as a state secret, which it was.38
Champlain watched these Spanish seamen at work and was amazed by their skill. He paid close attention as the fleet set its course and steered along a rhumb line south-southwest from Sanlucar, running before a remarkably “steady and very sharp wind” nearly eight hundred miles down the coast of Africa, on a course for the Canary Islands. The prevailing winds and currents gave them a quick passage. After six days, by Champlain’s reckoning, lookouts in the rigging sang out that the islands were in sight.39
The Spanish navigators passed through the Canaries and searched carefully for seamarks in what they called le goulphe de las damas, Ladies’ Gulf. They watched the wind with close attention, for they were approaching a pivot point in their voyage. Beyond the islands they picked up the strong trade winds that blew steadily in that latitude. Once again the helmsmen shifted their heavy tillers, and seamen hauled away on sheets and braces. The great galleons turned downwind in unison and settled on a new course, sailing due west toward the setting sun.40
A Spanish navigator using an astrolabe to find his latitude from a fix on the sun at noon. In 1599, Champlain sailed to America with these men, and learned much from their experience about seamanship and navigation in the North Atlantic.
Once more Champlain marveled at the steady wind astern, vente en pouppe, that swept them across the ocean toward the West Indies. Every day precisely at noon, the navigators shot a daily sunline with their circular astrolabes. At dusk when the line of the horizon could still be seen, and stars began to appear in the northern sky, they brought out their cross staffes and calculated the elevation of Polaris. They used these methods to find the sixteenth parallel, which was the latitude of a small West Indian island that Christopher Columbus had named Deseade, the Desired One. It is now La Désirade, a French possession five miles east of Guadeloupe.41
That was their destination, and after six weeks at sea they made their landfall exactly on course. Lookouts high in the rigging would have been the first to see the distinctive high headland of Deseade, visible from a great distance at sea. Champlain sketched the island and noted that Spanish navigators had long used it as a landmark for their voyages to the West Indies. He studied these highly skilled men, and learned from them to navigate the North Atlantic.42
At Deseade, the ships parted company and sailed in different directions. Don Francisco Coloma was worried about Puerto Rico. He was under orders to land a new garrison of four hundred men as quickly as possible. Most of his fleet sailed there directly without making the customary stop for water at Guadeloupe. San Julian went a different way. Don Francisco reported that the battered old ship had begun to leak early in the voyage, and at a dangerous rate. The crew was barely able to keep up with the pumps. Perhaps her seams had opened, or fastenings had worked loose, or rot had got into her planking. Whatever the cause, the Spanish commander reported he was “a hundred times” on the verge of ordering San Julian to be abandoned.43 After the fleet turned north toward Puerto Rico, Champlain tells us, his ship stopped at Guadeloupe and anchored in a harbor he called Nacou, today’s Grande Bay. The leaking ship was probably ordered there so that her bottom could be inspected and repairs made. Working alongside was her small tender, the patache Sandoval.44
While they were at Guadeloupe the crews rowed ashore for water and fresh fruit. Champlain went with them and explored the island, which he described as “very mountainous, full of trees, and inhabited by savages.” He wrote, “As we landed, we saw more than three hundred savages, who fled into the mountains, without our being able to overtake a single one of them, they being more nimble in running.”45
Champlain had no designs upon them. He merely wanted to meet and talk. Here again he was fascinated by the variety of humanity in the world and by the diversity of their ways. But the Indians of Guadaloupe had met Europeans with other purposes in mind, and they ran for their lives. It must have made a striking scene on that beautiful beach at Guadeloupe. Young Champlain splashed ashore, perhaps with a sword at his side, and he walked toward a crowd of curious Indians. They watched him from a distance, then turned and ran toward the mountains. Champlain hitched up his sword and struggled after them through the sand, while his companions on the beach roared with laughter.46
This comic scene touched a matter of serious importance in Champlain’s life. It was the first sign of a continuing theme in his career: a deep interest in native Americans. He always regarded them as human beings like himself, and remarked on their intelligence. Often he commented on their physique and appearance, which was much superior to European contemporaries. Champlain was interested in the Indians for themselves and also for what they could teach him about the new world. He always tried to learn from them, mostly about humanity itself. That attitude first appeared in 1599, in this comic scene on a beach in Gaudeloupe, but it was a very serious business, and it continued all his life.47
* * *
In 1599, Champlain landed on the island of Guadeloupe, saw American Indians for the first time, and was consumed with curiosity. He approached in amity, but they fled into the hills. This watercolor by Champlain himself shows that moment, which marked the beginning of hi
s lifelong interest in native Americans.
While Champlain tried in vain to make contact with the Indians, the crews of San Julian and her tender Sandoval replenished their water and provisions. It is probable that some hasty repairs were made, and the two ships got underway for Puerto Rico. They sailed together as far as the Virgin Islands. Perhaps at that point it was clear that San Julian could reach Puerto Rico without assistance, and Sandoval departed on a special mission of high priority in the Spanish empire. Every year the Spanish treasure fleet sent a small vessel five hundred miles south to the Isla de Margarita off the coast of Venezuela.48
“Margarita” is the Latin word for pearl. The island was a great center for pearl fishing in the Spanish empire. Champlain tells us that he got permission to make this side voyage aboard Sandoval, which allowed him to visit another part of the empire and observe an important source of its wealth. Little Sandoval made a swift passage southward across the Caribbean Sea from the Virgin Islands to the coast of South America, and arrived safely. Champlain studied Margarita with great attention and made an accurate map of the island. He also wrote a detailed description of the pearl fisheries. Every day he observed that three hundred canoes put to sea, carrying slaves who were compelled to make “free dives” in deep water, with small baskets under their arms. They brought up oysters and other mollusks, and extracted large quantities of pearls, some of great size.49
Champlain sailed south to Margarita Island, center of the pearl fisheries in the Spanish empire. He observed the exploitation of Indian and African slaves who were forced to dive for pearls. His Brief Discours included many paintings of Spanish cruelty to American Indians, which shocked and off ended him.
The pearl fisheries were a brutal business. The “free dives” were the only free thing about this cruel industry. Indian divers had been conscripted by the Spanish, and were soon destroyed by ruthless exploitation. In Champlain’s time they were replaced by the African slaves who were diving when he was there. He was deeply interested in the condition of these ethnic underclasses of the Spanish empire, and his concern increased with every contact. The cruelty of the pearl fisheries inspired one of the first antislavery movements in America, led by the Spanish monk Bartolomé de Las Casas, who described the suffering of the pearl slaves in harrowing detail. The industry was also very harsh in its environmental impact. When Champlain visited Margarita in 1599, the pearl fisheries were already in decline. One of its historians has written that it was the first recorded instance of “resource declines in any of the world’s marine fisheries, brought about by intensive harvesting.”50
At Margarita Island, Sandoval took aboard her precious cargo and set sail for Puerto Rico. This was another long voyage of five hundred miles across the Caribbean, routine in the life of the Spanish empire and vital to its prosperity. Every year the annual crop of pearls from Margarita was carried in small fast sailing vessels to expert pearl merchants in San Juan and Santo Domingo. They sorted and graded the pearls for shipment in the annual treasure fleet.51
Sandoval made the voyage successfully, and anchored in the harbor of San Juan among the great galleons of Don Francisco’s fleet. “The harbor is very good,” Champlain observed, “and sheltered from all winds except the northeast, which blows straight into it,” as is still the case.52 He was shocked by the condition of the town. It had been wrecked by the Earl of Cumberland’s freebooters, in an orgy of senseless destruction. The English had anchored down the coast, attacked in the night, surprised the defenders, destroyed the fortress of San Juan, and removed its cannon. Champlain noted that “most of the houses were burned, and not four persons were to be found, except a few negroes who told us that the merchants had mostly been carried away as prisoners by the English treasure fleet, and the rest had fled into the mountains, fearing the return of the English.” The raiders had taken most things of value, and filled twelve ships with booty. They left behind big piles of sugar, ginger, cassia, molasses, and hides, rotting in the tropical climate.53
Champlain found that the reconstruction of San Juan had already begun. It was a remarkable effort that demonstrated the energy and resources of the Spanish empire at its peak. Don Francisco replaced the garrison at San Juan with four hundred troops, and rearmed the fort with forty-seven bronze cannon that had been in Blavet. The Spanish authorities also sent another 300 men from Santo Domingo (today’s Hispaniola) to Puerto Rico, with orders to rebuild the ruined fortress of San Juan. Champlain noted that most of the workers were Indians, and others were African. Once again he sought them out and talked with them.54
Champlain was able to explore parts of the big island. He wrote, “Puerto Rico is very agreeable, however a little mountainous,” and drew a charming small map of the island.55 He was deeply impressed by the magnificent forests, and the profusion of species that he had never seen before. To explore Puerto Rico’s El Yunque Forest today, with its towering trees and wild impatiens blooming brilliantly in the half-light underneath the dense canopy, is to share Champlain’s impression. He made many drawings of plants and animals, noting that they were from direct observation. Among Champlain’s many wonders was a “tree called sombrade [from the Spanish sombra, shade], the tops of whose branches, as it grows, drooping to the earth take root immediately and produce other branches which fall over and take root in the same way. I have seen one of these trees of such an extent that it covered a league and a quarter.” Champlain also described dense old Mangrove swamps, which are still to be seen in the same condition on the coast of Puerto Rico between San Juan and the old settlement of Loiza Aldea to the east. He was observing the wonders of a new world for himself.56
While Champlain studied the scenery in Puerto Rico, Don Francisco Coloma divided his fleet into three squadrons and sent them in different directions. The commander himself took one squadron to Cartagena (in today’s Colombia), and sent another to Panama. A third squadron, commanded by Joannes de Urdayre received orders for Vera Cruz in Mexico. It included three large ships, among them San Julian. Each galleon had a smaller tender. Once again San Julian was assigned Sandoval.57
Urdayre’s squadron departed from San Juan and sailed westward along the north coast of Puerto Rico. Their destination was the island of San Domingo.58 They followed the north coast of San Domingo and put in at the harbors of Puerto Plata, Manzanello, Port Moustique, Monte Christi Bay, and Cap St. Nicolas. Champlain made sketches of the towns and their fortifications.59 This coast was the northern edge of the Caribbean, often visited by interlopers from England, France, and the Low Countries. Some were pirates who came to fight and steal. Others were merchants who wished to trade. Many were freebooters who combined both roles. Their ships were built for speed and rigged in ways that allowed them to point close into the wind, or to run freely before it. They were nimble, heavily armed, very fast, and not easy to catch. Urdayre’s squadron was ordered to clear the north coast of the Caribbean of these unwelcome visitors. The Spanish were very cruel to interlopers. Those who were caught were tortured, executed, or sent to the galleys, from which few returned. So brutal was the treatment of galley slaves in that cruel era that some were compelled to wear pear-shaped wooden gags to muffle their cries when they were whipped.
At Port Moustique, now a very beautiful bay on the coast of Haiti, the Spanish ships caught two small French vessels from Dieppe. Their crews fled ashore and disappeared into the forest, all but one unfortunate seaman who was too lame to run. The Spaniards persuaded him to tell what he knew, and he spoke of “thirteen large ships, French, English and Flemish, fitted out half for war, half for trading,” lying at anchor beyond Cap St. Nicolas on the west coast of what is now Haiti. The Spanish commander, although outnumbered two to one, did not hesitate. Urdayre ordered his three large ships and four pataches to attack. They sailed quickly around Cap St. Nicolas and found the interlopers in a bay behind the cape. A wind was blowing from the shore, and the Spanish squadron was unable to enter the bay. Urdayre anchored for the night and planned to attack in
the morning. During the night he sent soldiers ashore to block the flight of their crews.60
The interlopers did not wait to be attacked. At dawn they seized the initiative, and sailed boldly through the Spanish squadron while it lay at anchor. Spanish crews worked frantically to get underway, cutting their anchor cables with axes—but too late. The interlopers passed quickly between the great Spanish ships, which could bring only a few of their guns to bear. Once at sea, in Champlain’s words, they “took the wind of us,” seized the weather gage, and sailed blithely away, leaving the great Spanish ships lumbering after them against the wind. Even then, the interlopers were not done. They confused the Spanish by yet another stratagem. A small vessel, with all sail set, was sent directly through the Spanish fleet. Champlain wrote, “many cannon shots were fired at it, but it kept going before the wind. Finally two small Spanish pataches came alongside and found that nobody was on board. The superstitious sailors refused to board it, saying that the little vessel was “steered by the Devil.” Champlain wrote that it “gave all something to laugh about,” except Commodore Urdayre, who was not amused. He blamed two junior officers and punished them severely. Champlain blamed Commodore Urdayre and the senior Spanish officers. He was more sympathetic to the interlopers, even as he stood on a Spanish deck.61
Champlain was deeply interested in the condition of African slaves and Indians on San Domingo. Once again, as at Guadeloupe and Puerto Rico and the Isla de Margarita, he was drawn to them. In Puerto Plata and perhaps at Gonaives or Cap St. Nicolas he appears to have found a way to make contact with African slaves, and to meet with Caribbean Indians. He talked with them and wrote that they were “a good natured people (gens de bonne nature), and very friendly to the French nation, with whom they traffic as often as they can, but this is without knowledge of the Spaniards.”62
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