The History of Puerto Rico | Page 4

when, clad in
his purple robe of office, bedecked with the insignia of his rank, he
entered the throne-room of the palace in Barcelona and received
permission to be seated in the royal presence to relate his experiences.
Around the hall stood the grandees of Spain and the magnates of the
Church, as obsequious and attentive to him now as they had been proud
and disdainful when, a hungry wanderer, he had knocked at the gates of
La Rabida to beg bread for his son. It was the acme of the discoverer's
destiny, the realization of his dream of glory, the well-earned
recompense of years of persevering endeavor.
The news of the discovery created universal enthusiasm. When it was
announced that a second expedition was being organized there was no
need of a royal schedule of remission of punishment to criminals to
obtain crews. The Admiral's residence was besieged all day long by the
hidalgos[2] who were anxious to share with him the expected glories
and riches. The cessation of hostilities in Granada had left thousands of
knights, whose only patrimony was their sword, without
occupation--men with iron muscles, inured to hardship and danger,
eager for adventure and conquest.
Then there were the monks and priests, whose religious zeal was
stimulated by the prospect of converting to Christianity the benighted
inhabitants of unknown realms; there were ruined traders, who hoped to
mend their fortunes with the gold to be had, as they thought, for
picking it up; finally, there were the protégés of royalty and of
influential persons at court, who aspired to lucrative places in the new
territories; in short, the Admiral counted among the fifteen hundred
companions of his second expedition individuals of the bluest blood in
Spain.
As for the mariners, men-at-arms, mechanics, attendants, and servants,

they were mostly greedy, vicious, ungovernable, and turbulent
adventurers.[3]
The confiscated property of the Jews, supplemented by a loan and some
extra duties on articles of consumption, provided the funds for the
expedition; a sufficient quantity of provisions was embarked; twenty
Granadian lancers with their spirited Andalusian horses were
accommodated; cuirasses, swords, pikes, crossbows, muskets, powder
and balls were ominously abundant; seed-corn, rice, sugar-cane,
vegetables, etc., were not forgotten; cattle, sheep, goats, swine, and
fowls for stocking the new provinces, provided for future needs; and a
breed of mastiff dogs, originally intended, perhaps, as watch-dogs only,
but which became in a short time the dreaded destroyers of natives.
Finally, Pope Alexander VI, of infamous memory, drew a line across
the map of the world, from pole to pole,[4] and assigned all the
undiscovered lands west of it to Spain, and those east of it to Portugal,
thus arbitrarily dividing the globe between the two powers.
At daybreak, September 25, 1493, seventeen ships, three carácas of one
hundred tons each, two naos, and twelve caravels, sailed from Cadiz
amid the ringing of bells and the enthusiastic Godspeeds of thousands
of spectators. The son of a Genoese wool-carder stood there, the equal
in rank of the noblest hidalgo in Spain, Admiral of the Indian Seas,
Viceroy of all the islands and continents to be discovered, and
one-tenth of all the gold and treasures they contained would be his!
Alas for the evanescence of worldly greatness! All this glory was soon
to be eclipsed. Eight years after that day of triumph he again landed on
the shore of Spain a pale and emaciated prisoner in chains.
It may easily be conceived that the voyage for these fifteen hundred
men, most of whom were unaccustomed to the sea, was not a pleasure
trip.
Fortunately they had fine weather and fair wind till October 26th, when
they experienced their first tropical rain and thunder-storm, and the
Admiral ordered litanies. On November 2d he signaled to the fleet to
shorten sail, and on the morning of the 3d fifteen hundred pairs of

wondering eyes beheld the mountains of an island mysteriously hidden
till then in the bosom of the Atlantic Ocean.
Among the spectators were Bernal Diaz de Pisa, accountant of the fleet,
the first conspirator in America; thirteen Benedictine friars, with Boil at
their head, who, with Morén Pedro de Margarit, the strategist,
respectively represented the religious and military powers; there was
Roldán, another insubordinate, the first alcalde of the Española; there
were Alonzo de Ojeda and Guevára, true knights-errant, who were soon
to distinguish themselves: the first by the capture of the chief Caonabó,
the second by his romantic love-affair with Higuemota, the daughter of
the chiefess Anacaóna. There was Adrian Mojíca, destined shortly to be
hanged on the ramparts of Fort Concepción by order of the Viceroy.
There was Juan de Esquivél, the future conqueror of Jamaica; Sebastian
Olano, receiver of the royal share of the gold and other riches that no
one doubted to find;