and the provisions of the natives, were indiscriminately their 1493. prey; that, under these provocations and abuses, the cazique of Cibao surprised and cut off several of them as they straggled about, heedless of danger; that then, assembling his subjects, he surrounded the fort, and set fire to it; that some of the Spaniards were killed in defending it; and that the rest perished, in attempting to escape by crossing an arm of the sea. Leaving Dec. 8i Navidad, he sailed eastward; and, at the same island, anchored Lands at before a town of Indians, where he resolved to plant a colony. part of the He accordingly landed all his men, provisions, and utensils, in a island; plain, near a rock on which a fort might be conveniently erected. Here he laid the foundation of a town, which, in honour of the founds the queen of Castile, he called Isabella. This was the first town first town. founded by Europeans in the New World.1 another COLUMBUS, in the spring of this year, despatched twelve ves- 1494. sels for Spain; and after a prosperous voyage they arrived safely in April at Cadiz.2 Leaving Peter Margarite the command of three hundred and sixty foot and fourteen horse, to reduce Hispaniola under obedience to their Catholic majesties, he now sailed for Cuba, which he descried on the 29th of April. Sailing along its southern shore, he discovered on the 5th of May another island, called May 5. Jamaica. Here, on landing, he met with much opposition from Columbus the ferocious natives; but, after repeated defeats, they became Jamaica. tractable, and even brought food to barter. Although Columbus appears to have made no settlement at Jamaica; yet, so favourable was the opinion that he entertained of the island, that he marked it out as an estate for his family.5 1 Life of Columbus, c. 2, 45–51. Grynæus, c. 93. Herrera, d. 1. lib. 2. c. 7— 10. Purchas, i. 731. P. Martyr, 11--13. European Settlements, i. 19, 20. Universal Hist. xli. 258. Robertson, b. 2. "The public buildings," says Muñoz, "were carried on with the utmost rapidity. They were composed of free stone. The private houses were formed of wood, and covered with grass or leaves, and raised with the same activity. At the same time several sorts of seed were sown, which shot up, as it were, spontaneously." Nuevo Mundo, 1. 4. c. 42. 2 P. Martyr, 10. Muñoz, l. 5. c. 3. "doce navíos." 3 Jamaica is probably an Indian word, for Oviedo mentions a river in Hispaniola, of that name. Univ. Hist. xli. 346. The early Spanish historians wrote the word Xaymaca. 4 Univ. Hist. xli. 346. "Pluribus in locis volenti Præfecto terram capere, armati ac minitantes occurrerunt, pugnasque sæpius attentârunt: sed victi semper, amicitiam omnes cum Præfecto iniêre." P. Martyr, 29. 5 The son and family of Columbus, considering Jamaica as their own property, built upon it St. Jago de la Vega, and several other towns, that were abandoned on account of the advantages attending the situation of St. Jago, which increased so greatly, as in a short time to contain, according to report, 1700 houses, 2 churches, 2 chapels, and an abbey. The court of Spain, notwithstanding its ingratitude to the father, granted both the property and government of Jamaica to his family; and his son Diego Columbus was its first European governor. 2 VOL. I. discovers 1494. Bartholomew Columbus, after various disappointments and adverse occurrences, had now arrived at Hispaniola. In his voyage to England he fell into the hands of pirates, who detained him a prisoner several years. When he had, at length, made his escape and arrived at London, so extreme was his indigence, that he was obliged 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 proposal before the king, Henry VIIth, but with little effect. When he had finished his negotiation 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 the queen, who persuaded him to take the command of three ships, which they had appointed to carry provisions to the colony at Isabella. Here Christopher Columbus, on his return to Hispaniola, met him, to his inexpressible joy, after a separation of thirteen years. The mew at Isa- brother's arrival could not have been at a more seasonable 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 islands, 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, natives of who had killed sixteen Spaniards, easily subdued him; and sent Hispaniola. several of his subjects prisoners to Spain.1 Sept. 29. brother. bella. Marches against the June. cane. A hurricane, more violent than any within the remembrance of the natives, occurred at Hispaniola. Without any tempest, or fluctuation of the sea, it repeatedly whirled around three ships lying at anchor in port, and plunged them in the deep. The natives ascribed this disorder of the elements to the Spaniards.2 But the descendants of Columbus degenerated from his virtues, and they, or their agents, murdered 60,000 of the natives. Univ. Hist. xli. 349. 1 Life of Columbus, c. 54-61. Herrera, dec. 1. lib. 2. c. 15. Robertson, b. 2. Europ. Settlements, i. 24. 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 perturbârat. Quamobrem pluribus in locis quotquot imparatos è nostris incolæ reperiebant, rapidè, et tanquam sacra offerentes Deo, trucidaverunt." Nov. Orb. 39. 2 P. Martyr, 45. "Gentem hanc perturbâsse elementa, atque portenta hæc tulisse, immurmurabant insulares." Grynæus, c. 100.-" adeo mare inundavit, ut supra mensuram brachii totam irrigaverit insulam. Hujus igitur diluvii causam barbari rejiciebant in Christianos ob piancula et scelera, quæ patraverant, quique inturbaverant eorum quietem." the natives THE unsubdued caziques of Hispaniola still showing a deter- 1495. mination to destroy, if possible, the Spanish colony, Columbus set out from Isabella, to carry on the war against them. His March 24. army consisted of no more than two hundred Christians, twenty War with horses, and as many dogs;" but the Indians are said to have continued. raised already one hundred thousand 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, reduced it under such obedience, that all the natives from fourteen years of age and upward, inhabiting the province of Cibao, Indian subwhere are gold mines, promised to pay as a tribute to their mission and 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.1 tribute. WHILE Columbus was successfully establishing the foundations 1496. of Spanish grandeur in the New World, his enemies were assiduously labouring to deprive him of bis merited honour and emoluments. The calamities, arising from a long voyage and an unhealthful climate, were represented as the effects 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 prevention 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 diligence for the discovery of mines. Having made these prudential arrangements, he set sail from Columbus Isabella on the 10th of March, with two hundred and twenty-five Spaniards and thirty 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.2 The natives of Hispaniola, by wars with the Spaniards, and a pestilential disease, occasioned by the damp places in which they 1 Life of Columbus, c. xli. Herrera, dec. 1. lib. 2. c. 17. The measure, said by Herrera to be "a small hawk's bell" [un cascabel pequeño], is wrought up, unmercifully, by some historians, into "a large horse bell." It was a little bell, worn by the hawk in the sport of a falconer. Herrera says, that "only king Manicatex gave, every month, half a gourd full of gold, being worth 150 pesos or pieces of eight." Muñoz calls the tribute " en un cascabel-contribucion durissima." 2 P. Martyr, 8, 46. Herrera, d. 1. lib. 2. c. 1. & lib. 3. c. 1. Columbus visited several of the West India islands before his departure for Spain, which was not till the 20th of April. sails for Spain. 1496. concealed themselves to shun their enemy, were already extremely reduced in numbers and in strength. Historians say, that one third of these wretched inhabitants had now perished. $. Domingo. The discoveries of Columbus excite attention in England. Commission to the Cabots. Three ships having arrived in July at Isabella with provisions from Cadiz, Bartholomew Columbus, on despatching them for their return to Spain, sent on board three hundred Indian slaves. This 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. The country on the southern coast of Hispaniola, appearing very beautiful, 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.1 The tranquillity of England, at this period, being propitious to the increase of its commerce and manufactures, London now contained merchants from all parts of Europe. The Lombards and Venetians 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 English merchants; and the specimens of gold, carried 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. With these incitements to the meditated enterprise, he communicated to the king his project, which was favourably received. A commission was accordingly, on the 5th 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 and possess, as his subjects, such places as they could subdue; giving them the rule 1 Herrera, d. 1. lib. 3. c. 5. Life of Columbus, c. 73. P. Martyr, 66. and jurisdiction of the same, to be holden on condition of paying 1496. to the king one fifth part of all their gains.1 JOHN CABOT, in virtue of his commission from Henry VII, 1497. undertook a voyage of discovery, with the hope of finding a Voyage of northwest passage to India. Early in May, he and his son Se- the Cabots. bastian, and three hundred men, with two caravels, freighted by the merchants of London and Bristol, commenced the voyage. On the 24th of June, they were surprised by the sight of land, June 24. which, being the first they had seen, they called Prima Vista. cover land: This is generally supposed to be some part of the island of Newfoundland. A few days afterward they discovered a smaller island, to which, on account probably of its being discovered on the day of John the Baptist, they gave the name of St. John. Continuing their course westwardly, they soon reached the continent, and then sailed along the coast northwardly to the latitude Coast along of 67 and a half degrees. Finding that the coast stretched the contitoward the east, and despairing of making the desired discovery the New here, they turned back, and sailed along the coast toward the World. equator, "ever with intent to find the passage to India," till they came to the southernmost part of that tract of the continent, which has since been called Florida. Their provisions now failing, and a mutiny breaking out among the mariners, they returned to England, without attempting either settlement or con- Return to England. quest in any part of the New World.2" Through a singular succession of causes, more than sixty years elapsed from the time of this discovery of the northern division 1 The style of the commission is," Johanni 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. The commission was given, therefore, in 1495, O. S. but 1496, N. S. where I accordingly place it. In Memoires de l'Amerique, iv. 472, the Letters patent, produced by the French commissioners A. D. 1751, have the date "du 5 mars 1495-6." Hakluyt, Robertson, and other historians, following the Old Style, have placed this commission in 1495; Rymer, Chalmers, and others, adjusting it, doubtless, to the New, have placed it in 1496. The Letters patent are in Hakluyt's Voyages, iii. 4–7; in Rymer's Foedera, xii. 595; and in Chalmers' Annals, b. 1. c. 1. Chalmers says, it is the oldest American State Paper in England. See Purchas, i. 718. Life of Columbus, c. 63. P. Martyr, 46. Belknap, Biog. Art. CABOT. Robertson's America, b. 9. Forster's Voyages, 266. Anderson, Hist. of Commerce, A. D. 1496. 2 P. Martyr, 232. Hakluyt, i. 513; iii. 6-9. Bacon's Hist. Henry VII. Smith, Hist. Virginia, 1. Purchas, i. 737, 738: iv. 1603. Josselyn's Voyages, 230. Harris' Voyages, i. 860. Robertson's America, b. 9. Forster, Voy. 266, 431. Belknap, Biog. Art. CABOT. Mather, Magnalia, b. 1. c. 1. Prince, N. Eng. Introd. Biog. Britan. Art. GILBERT. Anderson, Hist. Commerce, A. D. 1496. See NOTE VI. Fabian says, that in the 13th year of Henry VII, a 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." Hakl. i. 515. This voyage was " to search for an island," which J. Cabot had indicated. nent of |