The

13

1494. Sept. 29.

He finds his brother

mew at Is

abella.

Columbus, on his return to Hispaniola, to his inexpressible joy, met his brother Bartholomew at Isabella, after a separation of thirteen years. brother's arrival could not have been at a more Bartholoseasonable juncture. Columbus essentially needed his friendly counsels and aid; for all things were in confusion, and the colony was in the utmost danger of being destroyed, Four of the principal sovereigns of the island, provoked at the disorderly and outrageous conduct of the Spaniards, had united with their subjects to drive out their invaders.* Columbus, first marching against a cazique, who gainst the had killed sixteen Spaniards, easily subdued him; natives of and sent several of his subjects prisoners to Spain,3 Hispaniola.

I Herrera, i. 138. Bartholomew Columbus was so unfortunate, in his voyage to England, as to fall into the hands of pirates, who detained him a prisoner for several years. and arrived at London, so extreme was his indigence, that he was obliged When he had, at length, made his escape, to spend considerable time in drawing and selling maps, to procure money sufficient to purchase a decent dress, in which he might venture to appear at court. He then laid his brother's proposals before the king [Henry VII]; but with little effect. remarked, "was rather a prudent steward and manager of a kingdom, "This prince," it has been justly than a great king, and one of those defensive geniuses, who are the last in the world to relish a great but problematic design." But, with all his excessive caution and parsimony, he received the overtures of Columbus with more approbation, than any monarch, to whom they had hitherto been communicated. When Bartholomew had finished his negociation in England, he set out for Spain, by the way of France, and at Paris received information of his brother's extraordinary discoveries in his first voyage, and of his preparation for a second expedition. This intelligence hastened him on his journey; but before he reached Spain, the Admiral had sailed for Hispaniola. He was received, however, with due respect by Ferdinand and Isabella, who persuaded him to take the command of three ships, which they had appointed to carry provisions to the colony at Isabella. Robertson, i. book ii.

• European Settlements, i. chap. i.

2 P. Martyr's account of the enormities of the Spaniards sufficiently shows, why the poor natives were at once united and desperate: "Ea gens, quæ Præfectum in ea navigatione secuta fuerat majori ex parte indomita, vaga, cui nihil pensi esset, libertatem sibi, quoque modo posset, quæritans, ab injuriis minimè se abstinere poterat, Insularium fœminas, ante parentum, fratrum, et virorum oculos raptans, stupris rapinis que intenta, animos omnium incolarum perturbárat. Quamobrem pluribus in locis quotquot imparatos è nostris incolæ reperiebant, rapidè, et tanquam sacra offerentes Deo, trucidaverunt." De Nov. Orb. p. 39.

3 Life of Columbus, c. liv-lxi. Robertson, i. book li. European Settlements, i, 24.

Marches 3

March 24.

the natives

1495.

The unsubdued caziques of Hispaniola still War with showing a determination to destroy, if possible, continued. the Spanish colony, Columbus set out from Isabella, to carry on the war against them. His army consisted of no more than "200 Christians, 20 horses, and as many dogs;" but the Indians are said to have raised already 100,000 men. The Spaniards soon routed the Indians, and obtained a complete victory. The admiral spent a year in ranging the island; and, in this time, reIndian sub- duced it under such obedience, that all the natives from fourteen years of age and upward, inhabiting the province of Cibao, where are gold mines, promised to pay as a tribute to their Catholic majesties, every three months, a hawk's bell full of gold dust; and every other inhabitant of the island, twenty five pounds of cotton.'

mission and

tribute.

The discoveries of

The tranquillity of England, at this period, beColumbus ing propitious to the increase of its commerce and manufactures, London now contained merchants England. from all parts of Europe. The Lombards and

tention in

Venetians, in particular, were remarkably numerous. Among these foreigners, John Cabot, a Venetian, and his three sons, Lewis, Sebastian, and Sanctus, were living in London. The father, perfectly skilled in all the sciences requisite to form an accomplished mariner, was led by his knowledge of the globe to suppose, that a shorter way from England to India might be found by the northwest. The famous discovery of the New World caused great astonishment and much conversation in the ⚫ court of Henry VII, of England, and among the Eng

1 Life of Columbus, c. lxi. Herrera, i. 145. The measure, said by Hertera to be " a small hawk's bell," is wrought up, unmercifully, by some historians, into "a large horse bell." It was, in truth, a little bell, worn by the hawk in the sport of a falconer. Herrera [i. 145.] says, that “ only king Manicatex gave, every month, half a gourd full of gold, being worth 150 pesos or pieces of eight."

lish merchants; and the specimens of gold, carried 1495. home by Columbus, excited an ardent desire of prosecuting this discovery. The adventurous spirit of John Cabot was heightened by the ardour of his son Sebastian, who, though young, was ambitious, and, at the same time, well versed in every science, subservient to a mathematical knowledge of the earth, and to navigation.

ion to the

With these incitements to the meditated enter- Commiss prise, he communicated to the king his project, Cabots. which was favourably received. A commission was accordingly, on the fifth of March, granted to him and his three sons,' giving them liberty to sail to all parts of the east, west, and north, under the royal banners and ensigns, to discover countries of the heathen, unknown to Christians; to set up the king's banners there; to occupy to occupy and possess, as his subjects, such places as they could subdue; giving them the rule and jurisdiction of the same, to be holden on condition of paying to the king one fifth part of all their gains.*

1496.

While Columbus was successfully establishing the foundations of Spanish grandeur in the New World, his enemies were assiduously labouring to deprive him of his merited honour and emoluments. The calamities, arising from a long voyage and an unhealthful climate, were represented as the effects

I The style of the commission is, Jobanni Cabotto, Civi Venetiarum, ac Ludovico, Sebastiano, et Sancto, Filiis dicti Johannis" &c. It is dated the 5th of March in the eleventh year of the reign of Henry VII. Henry was crowned Oct. 30, 1485. If that year be reckoned the first of his reign, this commission is rightly placed by Hakluyt, Robertson, and others, in 1495; but, if the first year of his reign be reckoned from 1486, the commission must be placed, where Rymer and some others have placed it, in 1496.

See

2 Hakluyt, iii. 4, 5, 7; where may be seen the Letters Patent; as also in Rymer's Fœdera, xii. 595; and in Chalmers' Annals, i. 7. Chalmers says, it is the oldest American State Paper of England. also Purchas, i. 718. Life of Columbus, c. lxiii. P. Martyr, 46. Belknap Biog. i. 149, 150. Robertson, book ix. 16. Forster's Voyages, 266.

1496. of his ambition; the discipline, maintained by his prudence, as excess of rigour; the punishments, that he inflicted on the mutineers, as cruelty. Resolved to return to Spain, to vindicate himself from these false charges, already made against him to the Spanish court, he exerted the small remains of his authority in settling affairs for the preven tion of such disorders, as had taken place during his former absence. He built forts in the principal parts of the island; established the civil government on a better footing; and redoubled his Columbus diligence for the discovery of mines. Having sails for made these prudential arrangements, he set sail

Spain.

from Isabella, on the tenth of March,' with 225 Spaniards and 30 Indians; leaving the supreme power in the government of the Province to his brother Bartholomew, with the title of Adelantado; and the administration of justice to Francis Roldan, with the title of Alcalde.

The natives of Hispaniola, by wars with the Spaniards, and a pestilential disease, occasioned by the damp places in which they concealed themselves to shun their enemy, were already essentially reduced in numbers and in strength. It is asserted by a very credible historian, that one third of these wretched inhabitants had now perished.3

This

Three ships having arrived in July at Isabella with provisions from Cadiz, Bartholomew Columbus, on dispatching them for their return to Spain, sent on board three hundred Indian flaves. measure was in compliance with the royal mandate; for their Catholic majesties, on receiving information, that some caziques had killed the Spaniards, had ordered, that, whoever should be found guilty of that crime, should be sent to Spain.*

I He visited several of the West India islands, before his departure for Spain, which was not till the 20th of April. Herrera, i. 154. 2 P. Martyr, 8, 46. Herrera, i. 153.

The country on the southern coast of Hispaniola, appearing very beautifui, was judged an eligible place for settlement. Bartholomew Columbus, having received written orders from his brother Christopher in Spain, to remove the colony from Isabella to the south part of the island, now began a settlement there, and, in memory of his father, whose name was Dominick, called it Santo Domingo.'

1497.

John Cab

ships.

Henry VII on the third of February gave per- Royal permission to John Cabot, to take six English ships in mission to any haven or havens of the realm of England, be- ot for six ing of the burden of two hundred tons or under, with the requisite furniture, and all such masters, mariners, and subjects of the king, as should be willing to accompany him. 3 Whatever might have

been the cause, an equipment appears not to have been made, to the extent of the royal licence.

4

On

the Cabots.

In the beginning of May, Cabot and his son Se- Voyage of bastian and three hundred men with two caravels, freighted by the merchants of London and Bristol, commenced a voyage of discovery." the twenty fourth of June they were surprized by the sight of land, which, being the first they had June 24. seen, they called Prima Vista. This is generally They dis supposed to be some part of the island of Newfoundland. A few days afterward they discovered a smaller island, to which, on account probably

1 Herrera, 168, 169.

2 Life of Columbus, c. lxxiii. P. Martyr, 66.

3 Hakluyt, i. 511, where is inserted a record of the rolls, relating to this voyage, entitled, "Billa signata Anno 13 Henrici 7." See Hazard Coll. i. 10. Chalmers, i. 8. Brit. Emp. in America, i. Introd. vi.

4 See Note I. at the end of the volume.

5 P. Martyr, 232.

6 Fabian, in his Chronicle, says, that one ship at Bristol was manned and victualled at the king's cost; that divers merchants of London ventured in her small stocks; and that in the company of the said ship sailed also out of Bristol three or four small ships," fraught with sleight and grosse merchandizes." Hakluyt, i. 515.

D

cover land