When Our People Landed With This Man, They Found Fifty-Five Other Indians
Among The Trees Near The Shore, All
Of them armed with bows and arrows,
perfectly naked and having their long hair tied into a large knot on
The
crown of the head, as worn by the women in Spain, and decorated with
plumes of various feathers. The man who had been on board prevailed upon
them to lay down their bows and arrows and great clubs, which they carry
instead of swords. The Christians stept on shore, and began to trade for
bows and arrows, as ordered by the admiral; but after selling two, they
scornfully refused to part with any more, and even made demonstrations to
seize the Spaniards, running to where they had left their arms, and taking
up ropes as if to bind our men. They being now on their guard, and seeing
the Indians coming furiously to attack them, although only seven, fell
courageously upon them, and cut one with a sword on the buttock, and shot
another in the breast with an arrow. Astonished at the resolution of our
men, and terrified at the effect of our weapons, the Indians fled, leaving
most of their bows and arrows behind; and great numbers of them would
certainly have been killed, but the pilot of the caravel, who commanded
the boats crew, restrained our people from any farther vengeance. The
admiral was not at all displeased at this skirmish, as he imagined these
Indians were Caribs, so much dreaded by all the other natives of
Hispaniola; or at least, being a bold and resolute people, that they
bordered on that race; and he hoped that the islanders on hearing how
seven Spaniards had so easily defeated fifty-five fierce Indians, would
give the more honour and respect to our men who had been left at the
Nativity.
Afterwards about the evening, these people made a smoke as if in defiance;
but on sending a boat on shore to see what they wanted, they could not be
brought to venture near our people, and the boat returned. Their bows were
of a wood resembling yew, and almost as large and strong as those of
France and England; the arrows of small twigs which grow from the ends of
the canes, massive and very solid, about the length of a mans arm and a
half; the head is made of a small stick hardened in the fire, about
three-eighths of a yard long, tipped with a fishes tooth, or sharpened
bone, and smeared with poison. On this account, the admiral named the bay
in which he then was Golpho de Flechas, or Gulf of arrows; the Indians
called it Samana. This place appeared to produce great quantities of
fine cotton, and the plant named axi by the Indians, which is their
pepper and is very hot, some of which is long and others round[10]. Near
the land where the water was shallow, there grew large quantities of those
weeds which had formerly been seen in such abundance on the ocean; whence
it was concluded that it all grew near the land, and broke loose when ripe,
floating out to sea with the currents.
On Wednesday the 16th of January 1493, the admiral set sail from the Gulf
of Arrows, or Samana, with a fair wind for Spain, both caravels being
now very leaky and requiring much labour at the pumps to keep them right.
Cape Santelmo was the last land they saw; twenty leagues north-east of it
there appeared great abundance of weeds, and twenty leagues still farther
on the whole sea was covered with multitudes of small tunny fishes, and
they saw great numbers of them on the two following days, the 19th and
20th of January, followed by great flocks of sea-fowl; and all the weeds
ran with the currents in long ropes east and west; for they always found
that the current takes these weeds a great way out to sea, and that they
do not continue long in the same direction, as they sometimes go one way,
and sometimes another, as carried by the changes of the currents; and
these weeds continued to accompany them for many days, until they were
almost half way across the Atlantic.
Holding on their course steadily with a fair wind, they made such way,
that on the 9th of February, the pilots believed they had got to the south
of the Azores; but in the opinion of the admiral, they were still 150
leagues to the west of these islands, and his reckoning turned out to be
true. They still found abundance of weeds, which, when they formerly
sailed to the West Indies, had not been seen until they were 263 leagues
west from the island of Ferro. As they sailed thus onwards with fair
weather and favourable winds, the wind began to rise, and increased from
day to day with a high sea, till at length they could hardly live upon it.
The storm had so increased on Thursday the 14th of February, that they
could no longer carry sail, and had to drive whichever way the wind blew;
but the Pinta, unable to lie athwart the sea, bore away due north before
the wind, which now came from the south; and though the admiral always
carried a light, she was entirely out of sight next morning. Considering
their consort to be certainly lost, and believing themselves in imminent
hazard, the whole company betook themselves to prayers, and cast lots
which of them should go on pilgrimage for the whole crew to the shrine of
our Lady of Guadaloupe, which fell upon the admiral. They afterwards drew
for another to go to Loretto, and the lot fell upon Peter de Villa, a
seaman of Port St Mary; and they cast lots for a third to watch all night
at the shrine of St Olave of Moguer. The storm still increasing, they all
made a vow to go barefooted, and in their shirts, to some church of our
Lady at the first land they might come to.
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