While Ponce De Leon Was Occupied In The Discovery Of Porto Rico, Don James
Columbus Came Out To Assume The Government Of Hispaniola In The Room Of
Obando, Bringing With Him From Spain A Governor For The Island Of Porto
Rico.
But Ponce de Leon, who had made the first settlement on that island,
disputed this new appointment; on which the young admiral set them both
aside, and appointed one Michael Cerron to the government, with Michael
Diaz as his lieutenant.
De Leon, however, procured a new commission from
Spain, through the interest of his friend Obando with which he went over
to Porto Rico, and soon found pretext for a quarrel with Cerron and Diaz,
both of whom he sent prisoners to Spain. He now proceeded to make a
conquest of the island, which he found more difficult than he expected,
and had much ado to force the Indians to submit. This he at length
effected, reducing the natives to slavery, and employing them in the mines
till they were quite worn out, since which gold has likewise failed, which
many Spanish writers have considered as a judgment of God for that
barbarous proceeding, more especially as the same has happened in other
parts of their dominions.
SECTION IV.
Settlement of a Pearl-Fishery at the Island of Cubagua.
The court of Spain was at this time very solicitous to turn the
settlements already made in the New World to advantage, and was therefore
easily led into various projects which were formed for promoting the royal
revenue from that quarter. Among other projects, was one which recommended
the colonization of the island of Cabagua, or of Pearls, near Margarita,
on purpose to superintend the pearl-fishery there, and the young admiral
was ordered to carry that into execution. The Spanish inhabitants of
Hispaniola derived great advantage from this establishment, in which they
found the natives of the Lucayo or Bahama islands exceedingly useful, as
they were amazingly expert swimmers and divers, insomuch that slaves of
that nation became very dear, some selling for 150 ducats each. But the
Spaniards both defrauded the crown of the fifth part of the pearls, and
abused and destroyed the Lucayans, so that the fishery fell much off. The
island of Cubagua, which is rather more than 300 leagues from Hispaniola,
nearly in latitude 10 deg. N. is about three leagues in circumference,
entirely flat, and without water, having a dry barren soil impregnated
with saltpetre, and only producing a few guiacum trees and shrubs. The
soil does not even grow grass, and there are no birds to be seen, except
those kinds which frequent the sea. It has no land animals, except a few
rabbits. The few natives which inhabited it, fed on the pearl oysters, and
had to bring their water in canoes from the continent of Cumana, seven
leagues distant, giving seed pearls in payment to those who brought it
over. They had their wood from the isle of Margarita, which almost
surrounds Cubagua from east to north-west, at the distance of a league. To
the south is Cape Araya on the continent, near which there are extensive
salines or salt ponds. Cubagua has a good harbour on the northern shore,
which is sheltered by the opposite island of Margarita. There was at first
such abundance of pearl oysters, that at one time the royal fifth amounted
to 15,000 ducats yearly. The oysters are brought up from the bottom by
divers, who stay under water as long as they can hold in their breath,
pulling the shells from the places to which they stick. Besides this place
there are pearls for above 400 leagues along this coast, all the way from
Cape de La Vela to the gulf of Paria; for Admiral Christopher Columbus,
besides Cubagua, which he named the Island of Pearls, found them all along
the coast of Paria and Cumana, at Maracapana, Puerto Flechado, and
Curiana, which last is near Venezuela.
SECTION V.
Alonzo de Hojeda and Diego de Nicuessa are commissioned to make
Discoveries and Settlements in the New World, with an account of the
adventures and misfortunes of Hojeda.
Among the adventurers who petitioned the court of Spain for licenses to
make discoveries, was Alonzo de Hojeda, a brave man, but very poor, who
had spent all he had hitherto gained; but John de la Cosa, who had been
his pilot and had saved money, offered to assist him with his life and
fortune. They got the promise of a grant of all that had been discovered
on the continent; but one Diego Nicuessa interposed, and being a richer
man, with better interest, he stopped their grant and procured half of it
to himself. Hojeda and Cosa got a grant of all the country from Cape De
la Vela to the gulf of Uraba, now called the Gulf of Darien, the
country appropriated to them being called New Andalusia; while Nicuessa
received the grant of all the country from the before-mentioned gulf to
Cape Garcias a Dios, under the name of Castilla del Oro, or Golden
Castile. In neither of these grants was any notice taken of the admiral,
to whom, of right, all these countries belonged, as having being
discovered by his father. Nicuessa got likewise a grant of the island of
Jamaica; but the admiral being in the West Indies secured that to himself.
Hojeda fitted out a ship and a brigantine, and Nicuessa two brigantines,
with which vessels they sailed together to St Domingo, where they
quarrelled about their respective rights, and their disputes were adjusted
with much difficulty. These were at length settled, and they both
proceeded for their respective governments, or rather to settle the
colonies of which these were to be composed; but the disputes had occupied
so much time that it was towards the end of 1510 before either of them
left Hispaniola.
Hojeda, accompanied by Francis Pizarro, departed from the island Beata,
standing to the southward, and arrived in a few days at Carthagena, which
is called Caramari by the Indians.
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