Peter Parleys Tales About America and Australia | Page 8

to his gloomy embarkation at Palos.
There were three large ships of heavy burden and fourteen smaller
vessels, and the persons on board, instead of being regarded by the
populace as devoted men, were looked upon with envy as favoured
mortals, destined to golden regions and delightful climes, where
nothing but wealth, and wonder, and enjoyment awaited them.
At sunrise the whole fleet was under sail, on the 13th of October he lost
sight of the Island of Ferro, and, favoured by the trade winds, was
borne pleasantly along, till, on the 2nd of November, a lofty island was
descried to the west, to which he gave the name of Dominica, from
having discovered it on the Lord's day.
As the ships moved gently onward, other islands arose to sight, one
after another, covered with forests and enlivened by the flight of parrots
and other tropical birds, while the whole air was sweetened by the
fragrance of the breezes which passed over them.
In one of these islands, to which the Spaniards gave the name of
Guadaloupe, they first met with the delicious fruit, the Anana or
pine-apple.
Columbus now sailed in the direction of Hayti, to which he had given
the name of Hispaniola, where he shortly arrived.
In passing along the coast he set on shore one of the young Indians who
had been taken from that neighbourhood and had accompanied him to
Spain. He dismissed him finely apparelled, and loaded with trinkets,
thinking he would impress his countrymen with favourable feelings
towards the Spaniards, but he never heard anything of him afterwards.
When he arrived on that part of the island where he had built the fort
and taken leave of his companions, the evening growing dark, the land
was hidden from their sight. Columbus watched for the dawn of day
with the greatest anxiety; when at last the approach of the morning sun
rendering the objects on shore visible, in the place where the fort had

stood, nothing was to be seen. No human being was near, neither
Indian nor European; he ordered a boat to be manned, and himself went,
at the head of a party, to explore how things really were.
The crew hastened to the place where the fortress had been erected;
they found it burnt and demolished, the palisades beaten down, and the
ground strewed with broken chests and fragments of European
garments.
The natives, at their approach, did not welcome them as they expected,
like friends, but fled and concealed themselves as if afraid to be seen.
Columbus, at length, with some difficulty, by signs of peace and
friendship, persuaded a few of them to come forth to him. From them
he learned, that scarcely had he set sail for Spain, when all his counsels
and commands faded from the minds of those who remained behind.
Instead of cultivating the good-will of the natives, they endeavoured,
by all kinds of wrongful means, to get possession of their golden
ornaments and other articles of value, and seduce from them their
wives and daughters, and had also quarrelled among themselves.
The consequences of this bad conduct were what might have been
expected: some died by sickness caused by intemperance, some fell in
brawls between themselves about their ill-gotten spoil, and others were
cut off by the Indians, whom they had so shamefully treated, and who
afterwards pulled dawn and burnt their fort.
The misfortunes which had befallen the Spaniards in the vicinity of this
harbour threw a gloom over the place, and it was considered by the
superstitious mariners as under some baneful influence. The situation
was low and unhealthy, and not capable of improvement; Columbus
therefore determined to remove the settlement.
With this view he made choice of a situation more healthy and
commodious than that of Navidad, and having ordered the troops and
the various persons to be employed in the colony to be immediately
disembarked, together with the stores, ammunition, and all the cattle
and live-stock, he traced out the plan of a town in a large plain near a

spacious bay; and obliging every person to put his hand to the work, the
houses were soon so far advanced as to afford them shelter, and forts
were constructed for their defence.
This rising city, the first that Europeans founded in the new world, he
named Isabella, in honour of his patroness the Queen of Castile.
As long as the Indians had any prospect that their sufferings might
terminate by the voluntary departure of the invaders, they submitted in
silence, and dissembled their sorrow; but now that the Spaniards had
built a town--now that they had dug up the ground and planted it with
corn--it became apparent that they came not to visit the country, but to
settle in it.
They were