After Much Importunity Mendez Obtained Permission To Go To St
Domingo, Where He Bought And Fitted Out A Vessel From
The private funds of
the admiral, which was sent to Jamaica at the latter end of May 1504, and
sailed
Thence for Spain by the admirals direction, to give their Catholic
majesties an account of the incidents of the voyage[17].
The admiral and all his company had received much comfort from the
knowledge that Mendez had arrived in Hispaniola, and entertained full
assurance of being relieved through his exertions; he therefore thought
fit to communicate the information to the mutineers, that laying their
jealousies aside they might be induced to return to their duty. For this
purpose he sent two respectable officers to them who had friends among the
mutineers, and suspecting that they might disbelieve, or seem not to
credit the visit of the caravel under the command of Escobar, he sent them
part of the bacon which she had brought. When these two arrived where
Porras and his chief confidant resided, he came out to meet them that he
might prevent them from moving the men to return to their duty by the
offer of a general pardon, which he justly suspected had been sent by the
admiral. Yet it was not in the power of the two Porras to prevent their
adherents from learning the coming of the caravel, the returned health of
those who were with the admiral, and the offers which he sent them. After
several consultations among themselves and with their principal
confederates, the Porras refused to trust themselves to the offered pardon;
but said they would go peaceably to Hispaniola if he would promise to give
them a ship provided two came, or if only one, that he should assign them
the half; and as they had lost their clothes and the commodities which
they had for trade, they demanded that the admiral should share with them
those which he had. The messengers answered that these proposals were
utterly unreasonable and could not be granted. To which the Porras proudly
replied, that since these were refused by fair means they would take them
by force.
In this manner the ringleaders dismissed the admirals messengers,
misinterpreting his conciliatory offers, and telling their followers that
he was a cruel revengeful man; saying that they had no fears for
themselves, as the admiral would not dare to wrong them because of their
interest at court, yet they had reason to fear he would be revenged of the
rest under colour of just punishment, on which account Roldan and his
friends in Hispaniola had not trusted his offers, and it had succeeded
well with them, as they had found favour at court, whereas the admiral had
been sent home in irons. They even pretended that the arrival of the
caravel with news from Mendez was a mere phantom produced by magic, in
which the admiral was an adept; as it was not likely, had it been in
reality a caravel, that the people belonging to it would have had no
farther discourse with those about the admiral, neither would it have so
soon vanished; and it was more probable, if it had been a real caravel,
that the admiral would have gone on board of it with his son and brother.
By these and other similar persuasions, they confirmed their adherents in
their rebellion, and at length brought them to resolve upon repairing to
the ships to secure the admiral and to take all they found there by force.
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