South American Fights and Fighters | Page 4

me,
I am inclined to agree with Fiske.
If it were not Vespucci, it certainly was Columbus on his third voyage
(1498-1500). On this voyage, the chief of the navigators struck the
South American shore off the mouth of the Orinoco and sailed
westward along it for a short distance before turning to the northward.
There he found so many pearls that he called it the "Pearl Coast." It is
interesting to note that, however the question may be decided, all the
honors go to Italy. Columbus was a Genoese. Cabot, although born in
Genoa, had lived many years in Venice and had been made a citizen
there; while Vespucci was a Florentine.
The first important expedition along the northern coast of South
America was that of Ojeda in 1499-1500, in company with Juan de la
Cosa, next to Columbus the most expert navigator and pilot of the age,
and Vespucci, perhaps his equal in nautical science as he {5} was his

superior in other departments of polite learning. There were several
other explorations of the Gulf coast, and its continuations on every side,
during the same year, by one of the Pizons, who had accompanied
Columbus on his first voyage; by Lepe; by Cabral, a Portuguese, and
by Bastidas and La Cosa, who went for the first time as far to the
westward as Porto Rico on the Isthmus of Darien.
On the fourth and last voyage of Columbus, he reached Honduras and
thence sailed eastward and southward to the Gulf of Darien, having not
the least idea that the shore line which he called Veragua was in fact
the border of the famous Isthmus of Panama. There were a number of
other voyages, including a further exploration by La Cosa and Vespucci,
and a second by Ojeda in which an abortive attempt was made to found
a colony; but most of the voyages were mere trading expeditions,
slave-hunting enterprises or searches, generally fruitless, for gold and
pearls. Ojeda reported after one of these voyages that the English were
on the coast. Who these English were is unknown. The news, however,
was sufficiently disquieting to Ferdinand, the Catholic--and also the
Crafty!--who now ruled alone in Spain, and he determined to frustrate
any possible English movement by planting colonies on the Spanish
Main.
II. The Don Quixote of Discoveries and His Rival
Instantly two claimants for the honor of leading such an expedition
presented themselves. The first Alonzo de Ojeda, the other Diego de
Nicuesa. Two more extraordinary characters never went
knight-erranting upon the seas. Ojeda was one of the {6} prodigious
men of a time which was fertile in notable characters. Although small
in stature, he was a man of phenomenal strength and vigor. He could
stand at the foot of the Giralda in Seville and throw an orange over it, a
distance of two hundred and fifty feet from the earth![1]
Wishing to show his contempt for danger, on one occasion he ran out
on a narrow beam projecting some twenty feet from the top of the same
tower and there, in full view of Queen Isabella and her court,
performed various gymnastic exercises, such as standing on one leg, et
cetera, for the edification of the spectators, returning calmly and

composedly to the tower when he had finished the exhibition.
He was a magnificent horseman, an accomplished knight and an able
soldier. There was no limit to his daring. He went with Columbus on
his second voyage, and, single-handed, effected the capture of a
powerful Indian cacique named Caonabo, by a mixture of adroitness,
audacity and courage.
Professing amity, he got access to the Indian, and, exhibiting some
polished manacles, which he declared were badges of royalty, he
offered to put them on the fierce but unsophisticated savage and then
mount the chief on his own horse to show him off like a Spanish
monarch to his subjects. The daring programme was carried out just
exactly as it had been planned. When Ojeda had got the forest king
safely fettered and mounted on his horse, he sprang up behind him,
held him there firmly in spite of his efforts, and galloped off to
Columbus with his astonished and disgusted captive.
[Illustration: "Ojeda Galloped Off with His Astonished Captive"]
{7}
Neither of the voyages was successful. With all of his personal prowess,
he was an unsuccessful administrator. He was poor, not to say
penniless. He had two powerful friends, however. One was Bishop
Fonseca, who was charged with the administration of affairs in the
Indies, and the other was stout old Juan de la Cosa. These two men
made a very efficient combination at the Spanish court, especially as La
Cosa had some money and was quite willing to put it up, a prime
requisite for the mercenary and niggardly