Isabella and Ferdinand’s reply to his missive was, mostly, to reassure him that he appeared to be making correct decisions and to agree to his requests. This included the trade in slaves, though approval came with a rejoinder that revealed some doubts. ‘Explain to him what has happened with the cannibals who came here,’ they wrote in their reply, presumably referring to debate over the issue of whether this slavery was legitimate or not. ‘That this is very good, and he should continue doing it, but that he should try, wherever possible, to convert them to our holy Catholic faith there, as well as doing the same with those [the Taíno] on the islands where he is now.’15
Isabella’s own state of confusion about slavery is apparent in the contradictory instructions she and Ferdinand now issued. On 12 April 1495, they wrote to Seville saying that the slaves due to arrive with Torres ‘would best be sold there in Andalusia’, but four days later suspended the same sale until Columbus had explained their status (presumably to establish whether they were war prisoners, cannibals or simple captives) so that ‘we can consult with lawyers, theologians and canon law experts whether they can be sold with a clear conscience’. A later instruction to pay ship’s captain Juan de Lezano’s salary in slaves suggests that at least some were acceptable, even if there were also eventually instructions to send others home.16
Details of the slavery debate in Castile are scant, but can be easily guessed at. Papal bulls issued earlier in the century to the Portuguese as they set about conquering parts of north Africa had given wide-ranging slavery rights that justified forcing Muslims, idolators and cannibals into slavery. This was not so strange. In the continuing warring between Christians and Muslims, slavery was already considered – by both sides – an acceptable destiny for the captured. Isabella herself had Muslim slaves serving in her court, including as seamstresses and as attendants to her daughters. Isabella’s own accounts show her ordering up clothes for a dozen slaves, while her letters see her buying one slave because ‘she is a good jam-maker’ and ordering that her other slaves be well fed but ‘given things to do to stop them getting lazy’.17 Two decades later the Flemish illustrator Christopher Weiditz drew pictures of Muslim slaves in Spain with iron chains on their legs and waists. The free rein given to the Portuguese responded, in part, to growing Christian fears that the battle against Islam, with the seizure of Constantinople and later Turkish expansion through Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia, was being lost. The papal bulls sanctioning the campaign did not discriminate between Berber and other Muslims in the north and sub-Saharan black Africans who had their own ‘pagan’ religions, perhaps because Islam was already spreading south into the gold-rich empire of Mali and elsewhere. ‘We grant that you and your successors as Kings of Portugal … will have in perpetuity, the right to invade, conquer, seize, subject and reduce into perpetual slavery the saracens, pagans and other infidels and enemies of Christ, whoever they are and wherever their kingdoms are,’ one papal bull stated. Another referred specifically to ‘Guineans [west Africans] and other negroes, captured by force or bought … with legitimate contracts’.18 It urged the settlers to ‘wage continuous war against the gentile and pagan peoples who exist there and who are profoundly influenced by the repugnant Mohammed’. It is not surprising that the Portuguese, initially seeking gold and spices as well as a route around Africa to India, took this as approval for both colonisation and the lucrative business of commercial slavery. Up until 1481, several popes reiterated those same rights.
Yet the papacy’s position was not entirely clear. Instructions given to the bishop of the Canary Islands, for example, banned the enslavement of Christian converts among the guanches and other indigenous people or of those who, thanks to peace agreements, were in a position to be converted – even if they were still pagans. As a result, Isabella herself tried to restrict slavery on the islands.19 In simple terms, then, the debate was about whether Isabella’s new subjects could be treated like black Africans, and automatically turned into slaves, or whether they should be treated like any non-belligerent guanches in the Canaries ought to have been – as potential Christians who could not be enslaved. Isabella’s own confusion on the matter suggests that she was being presented with both sides of the argument. Talavera probably defended the milder set of rules, while Columbus himself – and his fellow colonists – were the main promoters of the harsher approach already being applied in Africa.
Isabella’s viceroy and governor continued to display his incapacity for man management. He had long been accustomed to lying disdainfully to his crews. Now he found many of those serving under him either lazy, reluctant to obey or so aghast at his manner that they wanted to go straight home or were openly rebellious. In any case, he himself seemed far more interested in sailing to discover still more lands – partly because he needed to find gold or some source of wealth beyond slaves, but also because this was his genuine passion and talent. Those he left in charge were not always good at their jobs and he fell out spectacularly with almost all those he appointed, switching from admiring praise to virulent hatred in a short space of time. Already in 1493 he was complaining that the cavalrymen brought from Granada were lazy and refused to loan their horses when they themselves were sick. Isabella and Ferdinand promised to investigate his gripes and saw no reason to blame their new admiral and viceroy for these problems. More importantly, they soon sent him a small fleet of three vessels with provisions, captained by his brother Bartolomé – who had failed to arrive back from France in time to join Columbus’s second trip.20
The news that reached Isabella and Ferdinand was, inevitably, already out of date. Columbus’s problems continued to pile up. Soon after Torres had left, two-thirds of La Isabela (mainly made of wood and straw huts built by the men for themselves) went up in flames. Then a mutiny led by Bernal Díaz de Pisa saw a group of men try to seize control of the remaining fleet of five vessels, forcing Columbus to arrest them and move all the naval weapons on to a single ship guarded by men he trusted. His son Hernando blamed a combination of greed, laziness and sickness. ‘Many on that journey had thought that all they had to do was touch dry land to be able to load up with gold and return wealthy, even though gold, wherever it is found, is never retrieved without effort, industry and time. As events did not unfold the way they had hoped, they were unhappy and worn out by the building of the new town and exhausted by the sicknesses of this new land,’ Hernando wrote in his own History of the Admiral. The real root of the rebellion, however, was that many more men – including Díaz de Pisa himself – had wanted to sail home with Torres but were refused permission.21
Columbus then set off to look for the Cibao mines himself with an army of 400 men, ready to do battle with Caonabo if necessary, and built an inland fort. The Indians alternately fled or were welcoming, and were almost always ready to bargain away their (normally small) gold pieces. Gold fever among the men was such that many hid what they obtained, with Columbus meting out punishments that included cutting off the perpetrators’ ears or noses. Some 3,000 castellanos’ worth of gold was obtained this way, but no mines were discovered. In La Isabela he forced the gentlemen adventurers who had come with him to perform many of the same manual tasks as the common soldiers and workmen, arguing that all hands were needed. This contravened the norms of Castile’s class system, or so the hidalgos and other privileged gentlemen thought. Discontent grew and Columbus considered sending back most of the men, maintaining a colony of just 300. The greedy garrison at his inland fort, Santo Tomás, soon began stealing gold from local Indians and word came that Caonabo was preparing to attack again. Columbus did not worry, not least because the Indians tended to flee in panic at the sight of horses, previously unknown to them and seemingly huge and frightening, but sent a force inland with instructions to capture Caonabo. Then he sailed off with three ships to explore the coastline of Cuba, which he now decided was part of mainland Asia.22
In Cuba, too, the ‘Indians’ were welcoming, rowing out in their canoes to offer gifts to the men
on what, for them, were enormous boats. But they said there was no gold on the island, suggesting that there might be some on another island five days’ sailing (for them) away. Columbus had already heard of this island, which he called Jamaica, and sailed on. The indigenous people of Jamaica were not nearly as welcoming and attacked Columbus’s men, but were easily put to flight with the help of a small cannon and one of the admiral’s dogs. By mid-May 1494, however, Columbus realised that there was no gold or other precious metals to be had and so turned back. Stopping off again in Cuba he met a local chief who informed him, somewhat confusingly, that although it was ‘infinite’, he was sailing along the coast of an island. But he clung to his fantasies and when one of his men bumped into a man in long white robes, Columbus wondered if he had not been the famous Prester John – the mythical ruler of a lost but wealthy Christian kingdom believed to be somewhere in Asia. Columbus continued to sail along the coast of Cuba and, having just failed to reach its westerly tip, he turned back, making all his men swear an oath saying that it was mainland. His desperation was such that he also threatened to whip or cut out the tongue of anyone who later declared otherwise.23
Torres had arrived back in Spain with Columbus’s charts in time to help Isabella and Ferdinand close their agreement with Portugal over the demarcation line separating their spheres of exploration and sovereignty. It was not the right moment to pick another fight with Portugal. Growing tension with France, an increasingly aggressive Turkish presence in the Mediterranean and the raids of Berber pirates were already trouble enough. The Portuguese king wanted the line, running between the poles, as far west as possible to increase his chances of finding new lands. He had claimed that it needed to be pushed from 100 to 370 leagues west of Cape Verde so that his vessels could have room for manoeuvre on the return trip from Africa, as they sailed west to pick up the winds and currents that would push them back to the Iberian peninsula. This division of the globe meant that Spain could not sail or explore around Africa or sail east to Asia, while the Portuguese could not cross beyond the 370-league line. But the map Torres had brought back appeared to prove the lands that Columbus had discovered to be a full 750 leagues away.24 Isabella must have been convinced that all the new lands to be discovered would fall comfortably across the line and so would belong to Castile. She certainly could not have known that, far to the south of Columbus, the American continent stretched out east, with large parts of modern-day Brazil lying on the Portuguese side. The Treaty of Tordesillas was signed on 7 June 1494, ensuring peace with Portugal and allowing the Columbus adventure to continue unimpeded.
Isabella now turned to making sure her new lands were properly supplied. This had been her special area of expertise during the Granada War, and Columbus’s man in Seville, the Florentine Giannotto Berardi (who described himself as a trader in ‘merchandise, male slaves and female slaves’),25 now wrote directly to her proposing that she offer to maintain each new colonist for two years, giving them time to become self-sufficient. She should also allow vessels to set out freely from Hispaniola to explore other islands, but these should carry one of Isabella’s officials, he said, to take note of the goods obtained, with strict control of all merchandise so that she could receive her share. ‘This way the population of the island will increase and others will be discovered and explorers, officials, miners and other skilled workers will go seeking their fortune, which will be good for your highness,’ he said. It would also help avoid a rush to come home, he added, from people who were owed salaries. ‘It seems to me that your highness cannot better explore the islands more cheaply, without offending the Indians and ensuring there is no harm to the trade from these islands. I hope that within six months your highness will have received so much from your fifthshare that your officials will be able to cover the ten or twelve cuentos [ten to twelve million maravedís of salary] that must be paid to people, and they will feel happy and that it has been fruitful.’26 It was a sign that Isabella was prepared to break Columbus’s monopoly, but also reflected fears that he had already died and would not return from his exploratory trip to Cuba and Jamaica.27
As the frequency of contact with her new colonies increased, Isabella began to receive worrying news. The Spaniards had not just disrupted the lives of the indigenous people on Hispaniola, but were fast destroying the ancient lifestyle of peoples who were ill prepared for their strange and increasingly aggressive demands. The Taíno were abandoning their crops as they fled or were captured and that meant less food for everybody, including the colonists. Malnutrition had become widespread and many of the settlers were unable to fight off the illnesses that ravaged their ranks, killing half of them. Columbus handed command of the settlements on Hispaniola to his brothers Bartolomé and Diego, who proved unpopular. Some of the senior men claimed seniority and both friar Boïl and the commander of the inland fort, Pedro Margarit, had abandoned Hispaniola in September 1494, sailing home with many of the lancers who were the backbone of Columbus’s tiny army. The garrison of the inland fort then ran wild, stealing women from the Indians.28 ‘They would not stop their abuses, snatching away island women in sight of their fathers, brothers and husbands; given over to stealing and thievery, they had altered the spirit of the natives,’ reported Las Casas. ‘They meted out beatings and the rod, not just on common people, but also on the principal, noble men.’29 When Columbus arrived back he was told a group of local chiefs had formed an alliance to fight against Isabella’s colonists. Columbus took with him his most formidable weapons, twenty attack dogs which (like his horses) provoked absolute panic among the Indians. He soon made a shocking discovery – the Indians had destroyed their food supplies and stopped planting in the belief that this would force the Spaniards to leave. As he advanced through the island, he found Indians dying of starvation. He easily defeated the alliance, capturing more than a thousand people and imposing a tax – to be paid in gold – on the rest, though this also failed to produce significant quantities of the treasured metal. The conquest came at a terrible price, with contemporaries estimating that at least 50,000 natives died from wounds, starvation or illness as a simple and relatively harmonious way of life was chaotically and violently disrupted.30
Only the return of Torres, with four vessels full of provisions and fresh men, allowed the colony to regain some form of stability. Torres also brought letters from Isabella and Ferdinand in which they suggested that, with the division of the New World with Portugal now settled, a regular service with at least one vessel travelling in each direction every month could now start. They also issued instructions ordering all those on the islands (they made no reference to any mainland) to obey Columbus’s orders ‘as if we in person had commanded it, or face the punishment that he orders on our behalf’.31 Columbus feared that Boïl and Margarit, on arriving in Spain, would destroy the promising and sometimes idyllic picture he had painted of the lands he had found, so he sent Torres back again. He also sent 400 slaves, a quarter of the 1,600 Indians that he was holding captive after his confrontations with the alliance. These were mostly local Taíno, rather than the supposedly cannibalistic Caribs that he had originally promised. The colonists were allowed to pick personal slaves from the rest while those left over (some 400, presumably weaker or older) went free. Most of the men who had travelled to Cuba with Columbus now agreed that the oath he had made them swear – declaring it to be a mainland continent – was false, with an adventurous and learned abbot from Lucerne who had joined them using his own knowledge of cartography to dispute Columbus’s claim. ‘For that reason the admiral has not let him come to Spain with us,’ wrote Michele de Cuneo, one of those who had been on the Cuba exploration. Columbus also prevented the gold sifters from returning home, hoping they could still be of use.32
Boïl and Margarit had reached Spain in November 1494, giving Isabella and Ferdinand a very different picture of the Indies to that provided by Columbus. ‘They dampened the monarchs’ hope of finding wealth in the Indies, saying that it was a deceit,
and that there was scarcely any gold in the island [Hispaniola] and that the expenses were high and never repayable and many other things against this business and the hopes that the monarchs had placed in the Admiral,’ wrote Las Casas. ‘This was not least because they had not returned in ships that were laden with gold.’ Also, since Columbus had not reappeared from his exploratory trip to Cuba and Jamaica at the time Boïl and Margarit set off on the return voyage, it was conveniently assumed that he had died. It was only when Torres reappeared with a fleet in April 1495 that they realised he was still alive. Torres brought slaves (a quarter of whom had died on the journey) and Columbus’s own written claims of having discovered the mainland in Cuba. An anonymous report sent to Isabella suggested that cotton might be an appropriate and lucrative crop.33
It was time, Isabella and her husband realised, to change tack. They sent one of their senior officials, Juan Aguado, with the next fleet, giving him extensive powers to investigate Columbus.34 They also issued orders allowing others to sail independently of Columbus and the royal payroll to explore, settle and trade in the new lands.35 ‘Anyone who wishes to go to live in the said island of Hispaniola without a salary can go freely, without paying for the right, and have for himself and his heirs the houses they build, lands they work and fields they plant … giving them a year’s maintenance … and keeping a third part of the gold they find or obtain,’ they wrote. Aguado had originally formed part of the second expedition, going home early, so he must have been aware of the gap separating reality from the descriptions Columbus was sending home. Aguado’s return to Hispaniola was greeted with joy by almost everyone except the Columbus family.36 Aguado and Christopher Columbus locked horns and both decided to return to Spain, but a hurricane ripped through the fleet in La Isabela’s poorly protected harbour, sinking the four ships that Aguado had brought as well as two others. This bought Columbus precious time because one of his men who had fled after a fight with Bartolomé’s servants had ended up crossing the island to the south coast before bringing back hopeful news. The man, Miguel Díaz, had become the ardently beloved guest of a female chieftain who had shown him sources of gold around the River Hayna – producing examples of what was clearly better quality gold than they had seen elsewhere. Díaz returned with the news and was pardoned for his fight with Bartolomé’s man. Columbus had by now realised that La Isabela, exposed on the north coast, was a poor port and sent Díaz back to found a settlement, the future capital of the Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo. He himself, meanwhile, prepared the remaining two vessels for a return trip to Spain. The journey took him three months, but Columbus finally made it back to Cadiz in June 1496.37
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