All This Being Settled, He Determined To Return With All
Speed To Castile Without Attempting To Make Any Farther Discoveries;
Fearing, as he had now but one ship remaining, that some other misfortune
might befal him by which their Catholic
Majesties would be deprived of the
knowledge of those new kingdoms which he had acquired for them.
On Friday the 4th of January 1493, the admiral set sail at sun-rise,
standing to the north-west, having the boats a-head to lead him safe cut of
shoal water. He named the port which he now quitted Navidad, or the
Nativity, because he had landed there on Christmas day, escaping the
dangers of the sea, and because he began there to build the first
Christian colony in the new world which he had discovered. The flats
through which he now sailed reach from Cape Santo to Cape Serpe, which
forms an extent of six leagues, and they run above three leagues out to
sea. All the coast to the north-west and south-east, is an open beach, and
continues plain and level for four leagues into the country, where high
mountains begin, and the villages were more numerous than are to be seen
in the other islands. Having got past the shoals, the admiral sailed
towards a high mountain, which he called Monte Christo, eighteen leagues
east of Cape Santo. Whosoever wishes to arrive at the Nativity from the
eastwards, most first make Monte Christo, which is a rock of a round or
conical form, almost like a pavilion. Keeping two leagues out to sea from
this mountain, he must sail west till he comes to Cape Santo, whence the
Nativity is five leagues distant, and to reach which place, certain
channels among the shoals which lie before it must be passed through. The
admiral chose to particularize these marks that it might be known where
the first Christian habitation had been established in these parts.
While sailing eastwards from Monte Christo with a contrary wind on Sunday,
the 6th of January, a sailor from the round top discovered in the morning
the caravel Pinta coming down westward, right before the wind. As soon as
it came up with the admiral, the captain Martin Alonzo Pinzon came on
board, and began to give reasons and excuses for leaving the squadron,
alleging that it had been against his will. Though the admiral was
satisfied that it had proceeded from evil intentions, well remembering the
bold and mutinous proceedings of Pinzon during the voyage, he yet
concealed his displeasure and accepted the excuses, lest he might ruin the
voyage, as most of the crew were Martins countrymen, and several of them
his relations. The truth is, that when Martin Alonzo forsook the admiral
at Cuba, he went purposely away with the design of sailing to Bohio, where
he learned from the Indians on board his caravel that plenty of gold was
to be found. But not finding the object of his search, he had returned to
Hispaniola where other Indians informed him there was much gold, and had
spent twenty days in sailing not above fifteen leagues east of the
Nativity, where he had lain sixteen days in a river, which the admiral
called the river of Grace, and had there procured a considerable quantity
of gold for things of small value, as the admiral had done at the Nativity.
He distributed half of this gold among his crew, that he might gain them
to his purposes, and concealed the rest for his own emolument, pretending
to the admiral that he had not got any. Finding the wind still contrary,
the admiral came to an anchor under Monte Christo, and went in his boat up
a river to the south-west of that mountain, where he discovered signs of
gold in the sand, on which account he called it the river of gold. This
river is seventeen leagues east of the Nativity, and is not much less than
the Guadalquivir which runs past Cordova.
Proceeding afterwards on the voyage, and being off Cape Enamorado, or the
Lovers Cape, on Sunday the 13th of January, the admiral sent the boat on
shore to examine the nature of the country. Our people there found a
considerable number of fierce looking Indians, armed with bows and arrows,
who seemed disposed to enter into hostilities, yet considerably alarmed at
the appearance of the Spaniards. After some conference, our people bought
two of their bows and some arrows, and with much difficulty prevailed on
one of them to go on board the admiral. These people appeared much fiercer
than any of the natives who had been hitherto seen; and their faces were
all daubed over with charcoal; their hair was very long, and hung in a bag
made of parrots feathers. Their mode of speech resembled the fierceness of
their aspect and demeanour, and one of them, standing completely naked
before the admiral, said in a lofty tone that all in these parts went in
the same manner. Thinking this Indian was one of those called Caribs, and
that the bay they were now in divided that race from the other inhabitants
of Hispaniola, the admiral asked him where the Caribs dwelt. Pointing with
his finger, the Indian expressed by signs that they inhabited another
island to the eastwards, in which there were pieces of guanin[8] as
large as half the stern of the caravel. He said moreover, that the island
of Matinino was entirely inhabited by women, with whom the Caribs
cohabited at a certain season; and that such sons as they brought forth
were afterwards carried away by the fathers, while the daughters remained
with their mothers[9]. Having answered all the questions, partly by signs,
and partly by means of what little of their language the Indians from St
Salvador could understand, the admiral gave this person to eat, and
presented him with some baubles, such as glass beads and slips of green
and red cloth, and sent him on shore, desiring that his companions would
bring gold to barter as had been done by the other Indians.
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