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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2010 with funding from 
 The Library of Congress 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/storiedwestindieOOober 
 
Hppletons' 1bome IReaMnQ IBookQ 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 WILLIAM T. HARRIS, A.M., LL. D. 
 
 UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION 
 
 DIVISION III 
 
 History 
 
APPLETONS' HOME READING BOOKS 
 
 THE 
 
 STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 BY 
 
 FREDERICK A. OBER 
 
 author of spain, puerto rico and its resources, 
 
 travels in mexico, in the wake of columbus, 
 
 crusoe's island, camps in the caribbees, 
 
 a life of josephine, etc. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
 
 1900 
 
SECONDCOPY, 
 
 5516 
 
 TWO COPIES RECEIVED, 
 
 Library of Congreee* 
 Office of the 
 
 JUN 1 3 1900 
 
 Register of Copyright* 
 
 a. /*o</y 
 
 o ♦ .. ■ * - h "^^ 
 
 JUN161900 ) 
 
 *r 
 
 *>orTo< 
 
 j 
 
 63341 
 
 Copyright, 1900, 
 By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. 
 
 0-3359 r eo :. 
 
IXTEODUCTIOX TO THE HOME EEADIXG 
 BOOK SEEIES BY THE EDITOR. 
 
 The new education takes two important direc- 
 tions — one of these is toward original observation, 
 requiring the pupil to test and verify what is taught 
 him at school by his own experiments. The infor- 
 mation that he learns from books or hears from his 
 teachers lips must be assimilated by incorporating it 
 with his own experience. 
 
 The other direction pointed out by the new edu- 
 cation is systematic home reading. It forms a part of 
 school extension of all kinds. The so-called " Univer- 
 sity Extension " that originated at Cambridge and Ox- 
 ford has as its chief feature the aid of home reading by 
 lectures and round-table discussions, led or conducted 
 by experts who also lay out the course of reading. 
 The Chautauquan movement in this country prescribes 
 a series of excellent books and furnishes for a goodly 
 number of its readers annual courses of lectures. The 
 teachers' reading circles that exist in many States pre- 
 scribe the books to be read, and publish some analysis, 
 commentary, or catechism to aid the members. 
 
 Home reading, it seems, furnishes the essential 
 basis of this great movement to extend education 
 
vi THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 beyond the school and to make self -culture a habit 
 of life. 
 
 Looking more carefully at the difference between 
 the two directions of the new education we can see 
 what each accomplishes. There is first an effort to 
 train the original powers of the individual and make 
 him self -active, quick at observation, and free in his 
 thinking. Next, the new education endeavors, by the 
 reading of books and the study of the wisdom of the 
 race, to make the child or youth a participator in the 
 results of experience of all mankind. 
 
 These two movements may be made antagonistic 
 by poor teaching. The book knowledge, containing as 
 it does the precious lesson of human experience, may 
 be so taught as to bring with it only dead rules of 
 conduct, only dead scraps of information, and no 
 stimulant to original thinking. Its contents may be 
 memorized without being understood. On the other 
 hand, the self -activity of the child may be stimulated 
 at the expense of his social well-being — his originality 
 may be cultivated at the expense of his rationality. 
 If he is taught persistently to have his own way, to 
 trust only his own senses, to cling to his own opinions 
 heedless of the experience of his fellows, he is pre- 
 paring for an unsuccessful, misanthropic career, and 
 is likely enough to end his life in a madhouse. 
 
 It is admitted that a too exclusive study of the 
 knowledge found in books, the knowledge which is 
 aggregated from the experience and thought of other 
 people, may result in loading the mind of the pupil 
 with material which he can not use to advantage. 
 
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION vii 
 
 Some minds are so full of lumber that there is no 
 space left to set up a workshop. The necessity of 
 uniting both of these directions of intellectual activity 
 in the schools is therefore obvious, but we must not, 
 in this place, fall into the error of supposing that it is 
 the oral instruction in school and the personal influ- 
 ence of the teacher alone that excites the pupil to ac- 
 tivity. Book instruction is not always dry and theo- 
 retical. The very persons who declaim against the 
 book, and praise in such strong terms the self -activity 
 of the pupil and original research, are mostly persons 
 who have received their practical impulse from read- 
 ing the writings of educational reformers. Very few 
 persons have received an impulse from personal con- 
 tact with inspiring teachers compared with the num- 
 ber that have been aroused by reading such books as 
 Herbert Spencer's Treatise on Education, Rousseau's 
 Emile, Pestalozzi's Leonard and Gertrude, Francis 
 W. Parker's Talks about Teaching, G. Stanley 
 HalFs Pedagogical Seminary. Think in this connec- 
 tion, too, of the impulse to observation in natural sci- 
 ence produced by such books as those of Hugh Miller, 
 Faraday, Tyndall, Huxley, Agassiz, and Darwin, 
 
 The new scientific book is different from the old. 
 The old style book of science gave dead results where 
 the new one gives not only the results, but a minute 
 account of the method employed in reaching those re- 
 sults. An insight into the method employed in dis- 
 covery trains the reader into a naturalist, an historian, 
 a sociologist. The books of the writers above named 
 have done more to stimulate original research on the 
 
Vlll THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 part of their readers than all other influences com- 
 bined. 
 
 It is therefore much more a matter of importance 
 to get the right kind of book than to get a living 
 teacher. The book which teaches results, and at the 
 same time gives in an intelligible manner the steps of 
 discovery and the methods employed, is a book 
 which will stimulate the student to repeat the ex- 
 periments described and get beyond them into fields 
 of original research himself. Every one remem- 
 bers the published lectures of Faraday on chemistry, 
 which exercised a wide influence in changing the 
 style of books on natural science, causing them to 
 deal with method more than results, and thus train 
 the reader's power of conducting original research. 
 Robinson Crusoe for nearly two hundred years has 
 aroused the spirit of adventure and prompted young 
 men to resort to the border lands of civilization. A 
 library of home reading should contain books that in- 
 cite to self-activity and arouse the spirit of inquiry. 
 The books should treat of methods of discovery and 
 evolution. All nature is unified by the discovery of 
 the law of evolution. Each and every being in the 
 world is now explained by the process of development 
 to which it belongs. Every fact now throws light on 
 all the others by illustrating the process of growth in 
 which each has its end and aim. 
 
 The Home Eeading Books are to be classed as 
 follows : 
 
 First Division. Natural history, including popular 
 scientific treatises on plants and animals, and also de- 
 
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION ix 
 
 scriptions of geographical localities. The branch of 
 study in the district school course which corresponds 
 to this is geography. Travels and sojourns in distant 
 lands ; special writings which treat of this or that 
 animal or plant, or family of animals or plants ; any- 
 thing that relates to organic nature or to meteorol- 
 ogy, or descriptive astronomy may be placed in this 
 class. 
 
 Second Division. Whatever relates to physics or 
 natural philosophy, to the statics or dynamics of air or 
 water or light or electricity, or to the properties of 
 matter ; whatever relates to chemistry, either organic 
 or inorganic — books on these subjects belong to the 
 class that relates to what is inorganic. Even the so- 
 called organic chemistry relates to the analysis of 
 organic bodies into their inorganic compounds. 
 
 Third Division. History, biography, and ethnol- 
 ogy. Books relating to the lives of individuals ; to 
 the social life of the nation ; to the collisions of na- 
 tions in war, as well as to the aid that one nation 
 gives to another through commerce in times of peace; 
 books on ethnology relating to the modes of life of 
 savage or civilized peoples ; on primitive manners 
 and customs — books on these subjects belong to the 
 third class, relating particularly to the human will, 
 not merely the individual will but the social will, 
 the will of the tribe or nation ; and to this third 
 class belong also books on ethics and morals, and 
 on forms of government and laws, and what is in- 
 cluded under the term civics, or the duties of citi- 
 zenship. 
 
x THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 Fourth Division. The fourth class of books in- 
 cludes more especially literature and works that make 
 known the beautiful in such departments as sculpture, 
 painting, architecture and music. Literature and art 
 show human nature in the form of feelings, emotions, 
 and aspirations, and they show how these feelings 
 lead over to deeds and to clear thoughts. This de- 
 partment of books is perhaps more important than 
 any other in our home reading, inasmuch as it teaches 
 a knowledge of human nature and enables us to un- 
 derstand the motives that lead our fellow-men to 
 action. 
 
 Plan for Use as Supplementary Reading. 
 
 The first work of the child in the school is to 
 learn to recognize in a printed form the words that 
 are familiar to him by ear. These words constitute 
 what is called the colloquial vocabulary. They are 
 words that he has come to know from having heard 
 them used by the members of his family and by his 
 playmates. He uses these words himself with con- 
 siderable skill, but what he knows by ear he does not 
 yet know by si^ht. It will require many weeks, 
 many months even, of constant effort at reading the 
 printed page to bring him to the point where the 
 sight of the written word brings up as much to his 
 mind as the sound of the spoken word. But patience 
 and practice will by and by make the printed word 
 far more suggestive than the spoken word, as every 
 scholar may testify. 
 
 In order to bring about this familiarity with the 
 
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION xi 
 
 printed word it has been found necessary to re-en- 
 force the reading in the school by supplementary 
 reading at home. Books of the same grade of diffi- 
 culty with the reader used in school are to be pro- 
 vided for the pupil. They must be so interesting 
 to him that he will read them at home, using his time 
 before and after school, and even his holidays, for 
 this purpose. 
 
 But this matter of familiarizing the child with the 
 printed word is only one half of the object aimed at 
 by the supplementary home reading. He should 
 read that which interests him. He should read that 
 which will increase his power in making deeper 
 studies, and what he reads should tend to correct his 
 habits of observation. Step by step he should be 
 initiated into the scientific method. Too many ele- 
 mentary books fail to teach the scientific method be- 
 cause they point out in an unsystematic way only 
 those features of the object which the untutored 
 senses of the pupil would discover at first glance. It 
 is not useful to tell the child to observe a piece of 
 chalk and see that it is white, more or less friable, 
 and that it makes a mark on a fence or a wall. Sci- 
 entific observation goes immediately behind the facts 
 which lie obvious to a superficial investigationo 
 Above all, it directs attention to such features of the 
 object as relate it to its environment. It directs at- 
 tention to the features that have a causal influence in 
 making the object what it is and in extending its 
 effects to other objects. Science discovers the recip- 
 rocal action of objects one upon another. 
 
xn THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 After the child has learned how to observe what 
 is essentia] in one class of objects he is in a measure 
 fitted to observe for himself all objects that resemble 
 this class. After he has learned how to observe the 
 seeds of the milkweed, he is partially prepared to 
 observe the seeds of the dandelion, the burdock, and 
 the thistle. After he has learned how to study the 
 history of his native country, he has acquired some 
 ability to study the history of England and Scotland 
 or France or Germany. In the same way the daily 
 preparation of his reading lesson at school aids him 
 to read a story of Dickens or Walter Scott. 
 
 The teacher of a school will know how to obtain 
 a small sum to invest in supplementary reading. In 
 a graded school of four hundred pupils ten books of 
 each number are sufficient, one set of ten books to be 
 loaned the first week to the best pupils in one of the 
 rooms, the next week to the ten pupils next in ability. 
 On Monday afternoon a discussion should be held 
 over the topics of interest to the pupils who have 
 read the book. The pupils who have not yet read 
 the book will become interested, and await anxiously 
 their turn for the loan of the desired volume. Another 
 set of ten books of a higher grade may be used in the 
 same way in a room containing more advanced pupils. 
 The older pupils who have left school, and also the 
 parents, should avail themselves of the opportunity to 
 read the books brought home from school. Thus is 
 begun that continuous education by means of the pub- 
 lic library which is not limited to the school period, 
 but lasts through life. W. T. Harris. 
 
 Washington, D. C, Nov. 16, 1896. 
 
FEE FACE 
 
 Assuming that no literary work is considered 
 complete without its proem, or introduction, this 
 shall be my excuse for narrating how this particular 
 book came into being. 
 
 I can hardly claim that it was by chance; yet 
 it resulted indirectly from my first visit to the West 
 Indies, in 1877, when, as an ornithologist ardently 
 in love with Nature, I went there in search of 
 birds. My self-imposed task took me into the forests 
 and mountains, to dwell with the Carib Indians and 
 negroes, as well as with the white cultivators of the 
 coast plantations. From them I obtained a great 
 deal of information that seemed to me of value, aside 
 from that relevant to the subject of my investiga- 
 tions. 
 
 I learned, for instance, of century-old traditions, 
 quaint folklore stories, pirate yarns and buccaneer 
 tales. Now and again, as in Dominica and Guade- 
 
xiv Till*: STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 loupe, Cuba and the Bahamas, 1 crossed the trail of 
 Columbus, and, becoming interested, procured all the 
 hooks thai told of Ids discoveries, and refreshed my 
 memory of historical events which ever after were 
 real and vivid to me. 
 
 Though possessed of a love for adventure and 
 romanticism, 1 was not entirely dominated by it, 
 nor by my desire to exhaustively exploit the avi- 
 fauna, or bird life, of the Antilles; for a Tier I had 
 completed this work (which consumed the greater 
 part of three years and resulted in the addition of 
 twenty-two new birds to the known species of the 
 world) I felt impelled to sock a broader field. 
 
 In my wanderings throughout the islands dur- 
 ing the years 1ST 7 'SO, I frequently met with re- 
 minders of Columbus; in Martinique I gathered 
 material which eventuated, many years after, in a 
 Life o( the Empress Josephine; and in Tobago imi- 
 tated Defoe's hero — as some readers of my Crusoe's 
 Island may recall. 
 
 Those chance meetings with great personages 
 gave me a relish for historical investigation; and as 
 it seemed, after visiting Mexico, Cuba, the Spanish 
 Main, etc., that all West Indian roads lead back 
 
PREFACE xv 
 
 to Spain, I went to that country to learn something 
 more of American history. Hispano- American civili- 
 zation, I found, had its origin in, or was strongly im- 
 pressed by, the Moorish invasion from Africa centu- 
 ries ago; so to Xorth Africa I went also, returning 
 thence to follow the course of the first Spanish voy- 
 ages from inception to ending. 
 
 These excursions were on my own initiative and 
 personal account entirely; but in 1891 I received a 
 commission from our Government to visit every 
 island of importance in the Antilles, and seek out 
 whatever vestiges remained of the early settlements. 
 This work, for which I received a medal from the 
 Columbian Exposition of 1893, was in a certain sense 
 complementary to all that I had done before, and 
 enabled me to make a complete historical survey of 
 the West Indies from the standpoint of personal ob- 
 servation. 
 
 Thus it will be seen that my researches, though 
 
 pursued intermittently and in a somewhat desultory 
 
 manner, extended over a period of quite twenty 
 
 years. They resulted in a mass of material, from 
 
 which I have selected what appears to me to be the 
 
 most interesting events of Antillean history. 
 2 
 
XVI THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 That my work is in any sense complete or ex- 
 haustive I dare not venture to assume, but trust 
 it will at least quicken the interest already awakened 
 by recent great events in that glorious archipelago 
 inhabited by diverse nationalities, lying adjacent 
 to both continents of the Western Hemisphere. 
 
 Frederick A. Ober. 
 
 New York, February, 1900. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I. — San Salvador 
 
 II. — Columbus and Cuba 
 III. — The search for Cipango 
 IV. — An Indian paradise. 
 
 V. — Fruits of the first voyage . 
 VI. — The cannibal Caribs 
 VII. — First forts and settlements 
 VIII. — The last Caciques .... 
 IX. — Destruction of the Indians . 
 
 X. — A CITY OF SAD MEMORIES . 
 
 XI. — More about Santo Domingo . 
 XII. — Buccaneers and treasure seekers 
 XIII. — The conquest of Haiti . 
 XIV. — Black kings and emperors . 
 XV. — Santiago and Havana 
 XVI. — Jamaica and the Maroons 
 XVII. — Puerto Rico and the Virgin Isles 
 XVIII. — In the volcanic chain . 
 XIX. — Historic battlefields . 
 XX. — Barbadoes, Tobago, and Trinidad 
 
 PAGE 
 
 1 
 
 13 
 
 25 
 
 37 
 
 48 
 
 59 
 
 73 
 
 83 
 
 97 
 
 111 
 
 126 
 
 140 
 
 156 
 
 168 
 
 184 
 
 203 
 
 223 
 
 240 
 
 251 
 
 265 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTKATIOKS 
 
 Supposed landing place of Columbus, 
 
 Bahamas .... 
 Route to and through the Bahamas 
 Sea grape and palmetto, Watling's Island 
 Lagoon on Watling's Island . 
 A country scene in Cuba . 
 Off Cape San Antonio, Cuba . 
 Contour of coast near Jibara . 
 Baracoa and Yunque Mountain 
 The seat in the shape of a beast 
 Seat carved of stone (Bahamas) 
 Indians and canoe. (From an old print) 
 Earliest map of Hispaniola 
 Pestle of stone, with carved face 
 Monsters of the air and deep. (From an 
 The Santa Maria 
 A portrait of Columbus . . . 
 The guira, upper and lower view 
 The second voyage, 1493 . 
 The waterfall (Guadeloupe) 
 A Carib girl. (From a photograph) 
 A Carib cookhouse (Dominica) 
 Old Indians of Dominica . 
 A Carib canoe . 
 The site of Isabella . 
 Armor of Columbus . 
 The church of Santo Cerro 
 Fort Concepcion de la Vega 
 Bell tower of the church . 
 Bringing gold to Columbus 
 First forts and settlements 
 
 Watling's Island, 
 Frontispiece 
 
 old 
 
 engraving) 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 11 
 
 15 
 16 
 18 
 20 
 22 
 26 
 30 
 34 
 39 
 42 
 45 
 50 
 58 
 60 
 64 
 66 
 71 
 74 
 76 
 79 
 81 
 84 
 85 
 87 
 90 
 95 
 
XX THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Preparing the feast. (From an old print) .... 99 
 
 Indian implements, Hispaniola 102 
 
 A battle between Spaniards and Indians .... 114 
 
 Interior of Santo Domingo church 120 
 
 Bartolome de Las Casas 124 
 
 Interior of the cathedral, Santo Domingo .... 129 
 
 Leaden casket found in 1877 131 
 
 Cloister corridor, monastery of San Francisco, Santo Domingo 135 
 
 Por Castilla y por Leon, Nuevo Mundo, Hallo Colon . . 139 
 
 Bohios of the buccaneers 144 
 
 Indians boucanning fish 147 
 
 Old Spanish swords . 154 
 
 Market square, Cape Haitien 160 
 
 Toussaint L'Ouverture ........ 167 
 
 General Jean Jacques Dessalines 170 
 
 A court in Sans Souci . . . . . . . 179 
 
 King Henry I, of Haiti 182 
 
 A cartman of Cuba 185 
 
 The Cuban volante 192 
 
 Havana in the seventeenth century .197 
 
 A milkman of Havana 200 
 
 A fair Havanese 202 
 
 Saint Ann's Bay, near Christopher's Cove, Jamaica . .204 
 
 A country road near Kingston 217 
 
 Aboriginal mealing stones, Jamaica 222 
 
 Casa Blanca, Ponce de Leon's castle 225 
 
 " Mammiform " stones, Puerto Rico (aboriginal carvings) . 227 
 
 Sea wall and governor's palace, San Juan .... 229 
 
 Aboriginal " mask " and "collar," Puerto Rico (carved stone) 232 
 Harbor of Charlotte Amalie, Saint Thomas . . . .234 
 
 Date palms, Charlotte Amalie 238 
 
 A coast plantation, Santa Cruz . . . • • 243 
 
 In the crater of Mount Misery 247 
 
 Old sugar mill, La Pagerie estate 254 
 
 The church at Trois Islet 258 
 
 " His Majesty's ship Diamond Rock " 266 
 
 Carib boys at play, Saint Vincent 271 
 
 Third and fourth voyages of Columbus to the West Indies . 277 
 
 A cocoa palm grove 281 
 
THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 CHAPTEK I 
 
 SAN SALVADOR 
 
 Chief among the Spanish war ships shattered and 
 sunk by the American fleet off Santiago de Cuba, on 
 the 3d of July, 1898, was a gallant cruiser of seven 
 thousand tons, named, after a princess of Spain, the 
 Maria Teresa. As flagship of Admiral Cervera's 
 unfortunate squadron, she had led the doomed ships 
 on their forlorn hope, and was one of the first to 
 be overwhelmed by the terrible tornado of shot and 
 shell that drove her, in a sinking condition, upon 
 the Cuban strand. A few months later some naval 
 engineers succeeded in floating her, and the hope was 
 indulged that she might become an ornamental, if 
 not a useful, member of the navy to which the ships 
 that had wrought her injuries belonged. She was 
 braced and strengthened, her gaping wounds were 
 closed temporarily, and, like a crippled bird, she 
 started on a voyage to the United States. All went 
 well until the Bahamas were reached, when a storm 
 arose, and, perforce, she was cast loose, after the 
 crew aboard had been taken off by the ship having 
 her in tow. It was expected that the Maria Teresa 
 
 1 
 
2 THE STOKIED WEST INDIES 
 
 would founder, being in such a disabled condition; 
 but the convoy rode out the storm and then cruised 
 about, as in duty bound, though without finding any 
 trace of the quondam captive, and so reported on 
 arrival in port. 
 
 Scarcely, however, had this news been given out 
 when a strange rumor became current, to the effect 
 that the cruiser had not sunk, after all, but had her- 
 self sought a last resting place for her bones on a 
 coral reef off the southeastern extremity of Cat 
 Island, one of the historic links in the Bahama chain. 
 And the strangest feature of this romantic incident is 
 that this vessel, bearing the name of a seventeenth- 
 century infanta of Spain, had gone ashore off Co- 
 lumbus Point ! 
 
 Another coincidence claims our attention in this 
 connection. When the wreckers found the ship she 
 was cradled on a coral reef, bolt upright; and they 
 reported that soon after she struck, her only passen- 
 ger, a large cat, leaped ashore and ran into the 
 woods. When and by whom Cat Island received its 
 distinctive name has never been determined, but it 
 would seem that at last it is well applied. 
 
 This island, forty-two miles in length and from 
 three to four in breadth, lies about midway the Ba- 
 hamas, a thousand miles from the port of New York, 
 and in its general outline resembles Italy, being 
 shaped like a boot. Columbus Point, which Wash- 
 ington Irving and many others claimed was the first 
 landfall of the " Great Admiral," lies at the heel of 
 the boot, where the shore is bold and rocky, rough 
 and shelterless. The southern extremity of the 
 
SAN SALVADOR 3 
 
 island, which in some places is from two hundred to 
 four hundred feet in height, has a few great white 
 cliffs, which form conspicuous landmarks. Like most 
 of the islands of this archipelago, this one is almost 
 completely inclosed within harrier reefs. 
 
 These facts are mentioned because there is an 
 interest attaching to some island of the Bahamas, as 
 connected with the first voyage to America, when, on 
 that memorable morning, the 12th of October, 1492, 
 boats from the caravels of Columbus landed on a 
 reef - inclosed shore. Its native name was Guana- 
 hani; but, says Columbus, "to the first island I 
 found I gave the name of San Salvador, in remem- 
 brance of His High Majesty, who hath so marvel- 
 ously brought all these things to pass." It is unfor- 
 tunate that the original journal kept by Columbus 
 for the perusal of his sovereigns was lost, and the 
 only portion copied neglects to give the latitude and 
 longitude of the first landfall and landing place in 
 the Xew World. Bishop Las Casas, his renowned con- 
 temporary, had access to this journal and made ex- 
 cerpts from it; but, not being a scientific man, he 
 omitted the very data which Columbus, as a trained 
 navigator, would have considered most important. 
 
 So it is that during the centuries that have passed 
 since the advent of Columbus here, his first landing 
 place has been wrapped in mystery — or, rather, has 
 not been satisfactorily determined. One thing, how- 
 ever, is now known: that the veritable isle of San 
 Salvador, or Guanahani, is not Cat Island, as for so 
 many years erroneously believed. This we may 
 say: That it is one of the Bahama Islands, that it 
 
4 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 lies within fifty miles of Cat Island, either northwest 
 or southeast, and that Columbus threaded his way 
 through the archipelago, before he reached and ex- 
 plored the north coast of Cuba. 
 
 FIRST VOYAGE 
 N 
 
 E A 2f 
 
 Route to and through the Bahamas. 
 
 It may be well, after all, that some of the prob- 
 lems of history and of exploration are left for the 
 present generation to solve; and who knows but that 
 some of my readers may have the pleasure of adding 
 to the sum of information now possessed by the 
 world? It will be a sad prospect, will it not, when 
 there are no more countries to explore and no more 
 worlds to conquer? At all events, though I myself 
 have visited and examined all the islands of impor- 
 
SAN SALVADOR 5 
 
 tance in the Bahamas, and have done so under the 
 most favorable auspices, I can not affirm that I know 
 exactly where Columbus landed. The island upon 
 which I think he landed (and my opinion is sup- 
 ported by many persons who have investigated the 
 subject) is that known as Watlmg's, named after one 
 of the old sea rovers of the archipelago many years 
 ago. It lies about fifty miles to the eastward of Co- 
 lumbus Point, is twelve miles in length by seven in 
 width, and is shaped like a pear, with its stem at the 
 southern end. 
 
 Whatever the impulse may have been — but I 
 think it arose from a desire to verify the accounts I 
 had read in old histories — it so happened that I one 
 day found myself on the north coast of Watling's 
 Island, and looking upon what, to my mind, was the 
 very spot where, just four hundred years before, 
 Columbus landed. Before me was a long, curving 
 beach of sparkling sand about two miles in length; 
 off shore, from a few hundred yards distant to about 
 half a mile, lay coral reefs, where the great waves 
 broke and threw up sheets of foam; but within this 
 barrier the water was as calm as the surface of a 
 pond sheltered by surrounding hills. Seashells on the 
 beach and sea birds hovering over, sprays of Sargasso 
 weed showing gold-green in the blue water, rainbow- 
 hued flying fish glancing in the sunlight — all these 
 were seen, also, by Columbus and his sailors. And it 
 is as silent now as when they landed here. The only 
 sounds that break the stillness are the shrieks of the 
 sea birds and the roar of the breakers on the coral 
 ledges. It is, indeed, more lonely now than then, for, 
 
(5 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 according to Columbus himself, the shore was swarm- 
 ing with those copper-colored people — the first of 
 their kind he had ever seen — whom he called Indians. 
 My readers, of course, know why: because he thought 
 he had landed on the coast of India, and inferred that 
 these naked inhabitants of Guanahani were subjects 
 
 Sea grape and palmetto, Watling's Island. 
 
 of the Great Khan whose land and court he was 
 seeking. 
 
 It 
 
 is 
 
 lonely here now, and sad. The islands 
 
 lie within the shadow of a terrible tragedy, the silver- 
 sanded beaches are stained with blood; for, of all 
 the laughing, innocent, and happy inhabitants of 
 Guanahani who flocked to the boats by hundreds 
 and thousands to see those " heaven-descended men," 
 
SAN SALVADOR 7 
 
 who paddled off to the caravels in their canoes, and 
 who gave the Spaniards freely all they had, not a 
 single descendant has survived to the present time. 
 Columbus left the Indians without doing harm to 
 any of them, and for years after his visit no Spaniard 
 came to the Bahamas; but later on, when the Indians 
 of Haiti had been decimated by their severe labor 
 in the mines, and others were needed to take their 
 places, the Lucayans (as they were called) were torn 
 from their homes and transported. All those who 
 were not carried into captivity were murdered, and 
 so the islands were left desolate. Relics of these 
 people are now and then found here, and I myself 
 have seen many fragments of skulls, shards of their 
 crude pottery, and some " celts," or stone spear and 
 arrow heads. These last-named the present dwellers 
 in the Bahamas (mostly of African descent) call 
 " thunderbolts," having a belief that they are of 
 celestial origin, and come down from the clouds dur- 
 ing thunderstorms. 
 
 In place of the aboriginal inhabitants of San Sal- 
 vador, to-day we find a population of about six hun- 
 dred people, who gain a miserable living from the 
 scant soil and the sea, by the most primitive kind of 
 agriculture, fishing, and " couching." The beautiful 
 species of conchs called the " king " and " queen " 
 are found here in abundance, and also that which 
 yields the rare pink pearls; in fact, from the nature 
 of their most common occupation the natives of the 
 Bahamas are known as " Conchs," throughout the 
 islands. 
 
 Four hundred years ago the island was covered 
 
8 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 with a luxuriant vegetation; but to-day, though it is 
 situated to the south of the northern tropic, the 
 growth is thin, and, while composed of many odor- 
 iferous plants, is not, strictly speaking, tropical. 
 
 Alongshore grow the dwarf palmetto and the 
 sea grape, the latter having racemes of white flowers 
 and a fruit upon which the parrots and wild pigeons 
 feed. Mahogany is found in the interior; also the 
 mastic, which is so hard that the old palisadoes made 
 with it by military engineers a hundred years ago, 
 are still in good preservation. Then there are the 
 ironwood, lignum-vitse, bullet wood, and the candle 
 wood, from which last-named, as it is so resinous, the 
 natives made their torches. Probably the very torch 
 that gave the light Columbus saw as he approached 
 the island, was made of this wood. The " butter- 
 bough," another native shrub, is so named from the 
 glossy surface of its leaves, which furnish food for 
 cattle, while the " corkwood " affords a good substi- 
 tute for real cork, and is used by the negro fishermen 
 to float their nets. 
 
 The aborigines used the leaves of the palm for 
 thatching their huts, and from the native cotton, 
 found here by Columbus in great abundance, they 
 spun thread which they wove into hammocks, and 
 the girdles which they sometimes wore around their 
 waists. After Columbus had left San Salvador, and 
 was on his way to the second island of the chain, 
 which he had seen from the first, he overtook an 
 Indian paddling a canoe, and " carrying a piece of 
 such bread as they eat [cassava] , a calabash of water, 
 a little black earth with which they paint themselves, 
 
SAN SALVADOR 9 
 
 and the dry leaves of an herb they very much value, 
 because it is wholesome and has a sweet scent." 
 This sweet-scented herb was probably the cascarilla 
 (Croton eleutheria), which has a pungent, spicy taste, 
 and when burned emits a musky odor. The natives 
 knew of its virtues as a tonic and febrifuge, from 
 the earliest times. As its specific name comes from 
 Eleuthera, that island in the Bahamas where it was 
 first found, this fact goes far to prove that it may 
 have been there that Columbus first landed, instead 
 of at Watling's, or farther south. This hint is thrown 
 out for future explorers as well worth considering. 
 
 There is one fruit the natives of the Bahamas 
 possessed, and which we must not omit to mention — 
 the pineapple — which grew luxuriantly here, and to- 
 day is a source of income to the inhabitants. Its 
 botanical name betrays its origin, for ananassa is but 
 the Latinized form of the aboriginal anana. Aside 
 from the fruits and vegetables indigenous here, such 
 as have been mentioned, and to which should be 
 added maize or Indian corn, the cocoanut (an exotic, 
 but probably brought here by the sea currents long 
 before the advent of Europeans), and various roots 
 and berries, the aborigines obtained little from the 
 earth. But the sea was a bountiful mother, and 
 yielded them fish in great variety, as well as turtles, 
 conchs, mussels, lobsters, and crayfish. They had 
 no large animals, and about the only living things 
 Columbus saw domesticated here were the native 
 parrots. There were also iguanas, which, as they 
 live mainly in the trees and bushes, were not at first 
 observed by the Spaniards. The parrots of San Sal- 
 
10 
 
 TIIH STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 vador long ago disappeared, but Hocks of them are 
 
 still seen in Acklin Island, soiiili by east of Watling's. 
 In the second or third island visited Columbus saw 
 and noted the mocking birds, which ho called night- 
 ingales; but lie was charmed with their ravishing 
 music, and compared them, to their great advantage, 
 with the songsters of Andalusia. 
 
 Now, I have inferred that this first voyage to 
 
 America is already so familiar to my readers that it 
 will not be necessary to repeat what other writers 
 have recorded. It is what Columbus found here, and 
 
 the forgotten or neglected facts leading up to, as well 
 as forming a portion of, the earlier history of the 
 
 West Indies, to which I would direct attention. 
 
 ( iolumbus, then, had at last secured his caravels 
 
 and his sailors, had fared forth from Palos, had 
 touched at the (binaries or Fortunate Islands, and 
 nearly crossed the wide expanse of unknown waters 
 
 lying between Europe and the goal of his am- 
 bitions. "Two hours after midnight," according to 
 
 llerrera, the old Spanish historian, "the caravel 
 Pinta, being always ahead, made signs of land, which 
 was first discovered by a sailor named Roderick de 
 
 Triana. . . . When day appeared they saw it was 
 an island, much wooded, well watered, and having 
 a lake in the middle." 
 
 llerrera says it was a fresh-water lake; but if it 
 were salt or brackish the description will apply to 
 Wat line's. According to the journal kept by Co- 
 lumbus, the vessels lay \o just outside the reefs (it is 
 a wonder they had not run upon them in the night), 
 from which point ho describes the view: tk This island 
 
SAN SALVADOR 
 
 11 
 
 is large and level [Cat Island is hilly], has a very 
 large lagoon in the middle, and is all covered with ver- 
 dure most pleasing to the eye." On Sunday, October 
 14th, he writes in his journal: " At dawn I ordered 
 the boats of the ship and of the caravels to be made 
 ready, and went along the island. 1 was afraid of 
 a reef of rocks which entirely surrounds it, although 
 
 Lagoon on Watling's Island. 
 
 there; is within depth and ample harbor for all the 
 vessels of Christendom, but the entrance is narrow." 
 The " vessels of Christendom " were small and 
 few in number those days, so the harbor at the north 
 end of Watling's Island will answer well the pur- 
 pose, having all the peculiar natural features men- 
 tioned by Columbus. "It is true," he says, "that 
 the interior of the belt contains some rocks, but the 
 sea there is as still as a well; " the accuracy of whieh 
 statement I myself have verified. 
 
12 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 Columbus sailed on toward Cuba, and never re- 
 turned to tlie Bahamas. In 1512, Ponce de Leon 
 came here to question the natives about the fabled 
 Fountain of Youth, which he was then seeking; and 
 again in 1521, on his way to Florida. It is worthy 
 of note that in the year 1893 a vessel built after the 
 pattern of the Santa Maria sailed over the course fol- 
 lowed by Columbus from Spain in 1492, and touched 
 at San Salvador, on its way to the Columbian Ex- 
 position. 
 
 The Bahamas were depopulated during the first 
 quarter of the sixteenth century, and for more than 
 a hundred years they lay desolate. Finally, about 
 1628, the English gained a foothold here, and, though 
 the archipelago soon became the resort of pirates, 
 buccaneers, wreckers, and smugglers, yet civilization 
 flourished apace, and eventually prevailed. 
 
CHAPTEE II 
 
 COLUMBUS AND CUBA 
 
 " The most beautiful island that eyes ever be- 
 held, full of excellent ports and profound rivers; . . . 
 one could live there forever! " 
 
 In this strain Columbus wrote of the first island 
 he discovered, when he had left the chain of the 
 Bahamas and reached another land, after three days 
 of sailing to the southward. It matters not much 
 just where he first landed in Cuba; but while his 
 earliest biographers in this century claimed the spot 
 to be the Bay of Nuevitas, now the port of Puerto 
 Principe, later writers have declared for the more 
 open yet sheltered Bay of Jibara. Both harbors are 
 on the north coast of Cuba, and I have entered both, 
 and found many points of resemblance to the de- 
 scriptions of Columbus in each place. 
 
 Several years later, on the southern coast of this 
 same island, Columbus named one of the inlets he 
 discovered Cienfuegos, or the Port of a Hundred 
 Fires.* If he had ever circumnavigated Cuba, and 
 had not held to the belief that this great island was a 
 continent, he might well have called it the Isle of a 
 
 * So named from an exclamation of a Spaniard at sight of the 
 hundreds of lights ashore : " Mira los cienfuegos!'" 
 
 13 
 
14 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 Hundred Harbors, for its eighteen hundred miles of 
 coast line is indented with quite that number of inlets 
 and navigable bays. 
 
 Moreover, if we were to make a voyage around 
 the island, we should find that each important port 
 had a well-defined profile of its own, and that the 
 landfall of every harbor is as unmistakable as the 
 Morro of Havana. With its total area of about forty- 
 eight thousand square miles, hardly one fourth of 
 which is cultivated, with its yet virgin forests of 
 cedar, mahogany, and precious woods and its unex- 
 ploited deposits of copper, iron, and gold, Cuba still 
 has most beautiful and commodious harbors with- 
 out trace of town or settlement on their shores, and 
 yet capable of containing half the navies of the 
 world. Lying open to the adjacent Bahamas, Haiti, 
 and Jamaica, as well as to the keys of Florida, these 
 unoccupied harbors have long been the resorts of buc- 
 caneers and filibusters, who early learned their secret 
 passes through the coral reefs. While the south coast 
 has many good harbors, the north coast has more, and 
 these latter have been more often the landing places 
 of Cuban relief expeditions in recent years, owing to 
 their proximity to Florida and its semicircle of reefs 
 and islets, some of which are not more than one hun- 
 dred miles distant. 
 
 From Cape San Antonio, the western end of 
 Cuba, the north coast runs easterly and southeasterly 
 for perhaps a thousand miles of tortuous length. 
 South of the cape a curious phenomenon, described 
 by Humboldt at the beginning of this century, has 
 been noted, in the shape of a spring of fresh water 
 
16 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 of vast volume bubbling up from the depths of the 
 sea, at which vessels may replenish their casks. An- 
 other peculiarity of this region, according to the same 
 
 Off Cape San Antonio, Cuba. 
 
 authority, is that the currents of the ocean run east 
 one half the month, and west the other half. 
 
 The conical and table-topped hills, such as Colum- 
 bus noted as he approached Jibara, are frequent 
 along this north coast, the first to be mentioned, going 
 easterly from Cape San Antonio, being those back of 
 Bahia Honda, a port of the Pinar del Rio region, 
 where the insurgents for a long time held the country 
 and obtained supplies. Fifteen miles farther east- 
 ward is the harbor of Cabanas, to which the cele- 
 brated Pan de Cabanas, or Sugar Loaf Hill, gives 
 guidance to the mariner. Another of these table- 
 topped hills is the Pan de Mariel, twelve miles far- 
 ther, and the approach to the harbor of Havana is 
 made known to the sailor by a remarkable isolated 
 hill seven hundred feet high with two round hum- 
 mocks. Forty-four miles easterly from Havana is 
 the fine port of Matanzas, likewise noteworthy for its 
 peculiar mesa, called the Pan de Matanzas. All 
 
COLUMBUS AND CUBA 17 
 
 these harbors mentioned are well known and much 
 frequented to-day; but easterly from the port of 
 Sagua is a stretch of wild country extending about 
 six hundred miles, containing little-visited lagoons, 
 with obscure entrances through coral cays, some with 
 large streams emptying into them, which have been 
 the resorts of pirates and smugglers for centuries. 
 
 At last, in our imaginary voyage, we reach the 
 port of Nuevitas, outlet of the famed inland city of 
 Puerto Principe, with which it is connected by rail. 
 The bay is celebrated for its fish, which are fine and 
 abundant, and for its sponge fisheries, which were 
 carried on by the natives at the time Columbus came 
 to Cuba. The large and sheltered harbor is reached 
 through a river six miles long, the entrance to which 
 is indicated by three small islands called the Bal- 
 lenatos, or Little Whales. It was this sea river, 
 or some other near, that Columbus described as so 
 attractive, and on one bank of which he landed, at 
 the same time taking possession of the island, calling 
 it Juana; and the harbor Puerto del Principe, in 
 honor of Prince John of Spain. 
 
 " When in the Bahamas," says the historian Her- 
 rera, " the Admiral would lose no time at the island 
 Isabella or others, but resolved to go in quest of 
 another, which the natives told him was very large, 
 and called Cuba, pointing to the south; he believing 
 it had been Sucipango [Cipango], by reason of the 
 signs they gave of it and the extraordinary way of 
 crying it up." So, as we see, the aboriginal name 
 has been retained, and the island is Cuba, and not 
 Juana, to-day. His arrival here was on the 28th of 
 
IH 
 
 1*11 10 STolMKD WKST IN Dl MS 
 
 October, L492, and, as was stated al the beginning 
 oi Mil chapter, he was probably attracted by the 
 lull:; bacli of Jibara, three oi which are called, from 
 their shapes, the Sugar Loaf, the Saddle, and the 
 Table, 
 
 ( ..ill, ,.ii ul . o:i:,l 
 
 Good harbor he found so numerous that he was 
 unable to decide which was the mo >st desirable, and 
 the same holds true to-dayj for there are several on 
 
 thlS |»«>|'l.i«»ll of l.lir ru:i;',|. of ( Sibil I'.rrurr ;i«';iin:,l :ill 
 
 the winds that blow, and at least two large enough 
 to floal the fleets of Europe. Many are concealed 
 behind barrier reefs of coral, nearly all are fed by 
 streams with wooded banks, and one, the Bay of Moa, 
 Ik:, ;ii the entrance of fi river having fall of three 
 hundred feet, and which leads into tangled, tropical 
 
 wildciiK •;;:'.. Silent ; 1 1 1 < I IllmOSl n n \ i: 1 1 »'< I, these har 
 
 bors, which ini'-lii. mii|)|m>i-i licet:', <>l coasting vessels 
 upon their bosoms, :m<l ought i<> be fringed with 
 human habitations, exisl ;ii the presenl time nearly 
 in the state in which they were found by Columbus, 
 in the year 1 L92. The Admiral was very enthusiastic 
 in praise of them all, bul particularly of <li< v harbor 
 of Raracoa, which he reached toward ili<» Insi oi No 
 member, H was called by him Puerto Santo, and he 
 writes in his journal respecting its river, which 
 emerges from tropical forests and forms the harborj 
 
001 I V.) 
 
 <mhfv..' and 
 
 the multitude of palm 
 
 form*, the big d most beautiful 
 
 1 h; . and an infinity of and 
 
 the bitti h plumage and 
 
 dure of the dor tin of tueh mai 
 
 irpaaief all other* in eharmf and 
 
 ight in k i<di 
 
 ople that, mueh 
 
 -ount of it to ymir Maj- 
 
 nand a:. ' 
 
 the trhole truth, nor my pen de#eribe it; and 
 
 f h* rhelmed at the aighi leh 
 
 riat J h; 
 Thi just four 
 
 hundred after Ihe vi-it of Oolumbun, and, Jiko 
 
 him, ha* felt the madeipiai 
 ,ro of it* charm l'< ■■ 
 
 Id, afford od a more delightful 
 
 eeu from the nea, or from 
 high liiU* v behind it. ful 
 
 n> adorn all t: 
 ritain fv 
 durou% that ne* / f ,al 
 
 and pr; 
 :: I: - - - • • • • r Up 
 
 • I ; i ' • I ■■■,■■ ■ •■ - - 
 
 of the - ra- 
 
 
 
 of o bile the 
 
20 
 
 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 though the trees were large their hearts were soft 
 and spongy, and easily hollowed out." 
 
 This port was so praised by Columbus that here, 
 in 1512, was founded the first city in Cuba, by Diego 
 Velasquez, who had come over from Hispaniola and 
 landed first on the southern coast. A Cuban historian 
 says: " It is situated near the eastern extremity of the 
 island, the surroundings presenting an extensive plain 
 gradually sloping from the mountains down to the 
 shore, intersected by valleys and richly wooded, from 
 which streams fall into the sea, affording, with all the 
 
 Baracoa and Yunque Mountain. 
 
 beauties of tropical vegetation, a picture of enchant- 
 ment." But the most notable feature of the environ- 
 ment of Baracoa has not been mentioned yet — the 
 famous and picturesque Yunque (the Anvil), a 
 beautiful mesa with level top, eighteen hundred feet 
 in height, and visible forty miles at sea. This 
 grand landmark guided Columbus to the port, and 
 he particularly dwells upon it in his journal as 
 an impressive natural object. From time immemo- 
 rial it has been a sacred mountain to the natives, and 
 their traditions say that in the morning, when the 
 
COLUMBUS AND CUBA 21 
 
 first rays of the sun illumine the eastern cliffs, the 
 face and figure of their great cazique, who once dwelt 
 on the summit plain of Yunque, can be seen traced 
 upon the perpendicular walls. 
 
 It was either at Baracoa, or from some bay like 
 that of Moa, that Columbus sent that famous embassy 
 to the Great Khan, believing that he had at last 
 arrived at the borders of the kingdom of Cathay or 
 Cipango, his mind being filled with the stories related 
 by that eminent Venetian traveler, Marco Polo. As 
 my readers are probably acquainted with the story, 
 and as my object is merely to localize the events of 
 West Indian history, rather than to detail them, we 
 will not narrate them at length. However, let us 
 recall that Columbus sent two Spaniards on this mis- 
 sion to the mythical Grand Khan, who were accom- 
 panied by an Indian of San Salvador and another 
 of Cuba. One of the Spaniards was a Jew. who spoke 
 not only Castilian, but Hebrew and Chaldaic, some 
 say Arabic. u Columbus gave them things to barter, 
 and set them six days to return in. with instructions 
 how to speak in the name of their Catholic Majes- 
 ties." And they were to travel inland until they 
 found the golden province of the island, which the 
 natives called Cuha-naean, where they were to 
 speak with the king, as already mentioned. They 
 traveled twenty-two leagues, through forests vast and 
 deep, crossing rivers and climbing mountains, and at 
 last came to the much-vaunted capital city, which 
 proved, alas! to be neither grand nor beautiful, but 
 merely a straggling village of thatched huts. The 
 people received them as if. indeed, they were heaven- 
 
22 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 descended, placed before them all they had in the 
 way of eatables, such as maize and yucca bread, and 
 caused them to sit down " on seats made of one solid 
 piece of wood, in the shape of a beast with very 
 short legs and the tail held up, the head before, with 
 eyes and ears of gold." These " seats," I may re- 
 mark in passing, have been found — or some like them 
 
 — in the Bahamas, 
 and in Haiti, some 
 made of wood, 
 as here described, 
 and others of stone, 
 proving the ac- 
 count by Columbus 
 
 The seat in the shape of a beast. , 
 
 to be correct. 
 
 From the historian we learn that at night " each 
 Indian carried a firebrand in his hand, to light fire, 
 and perfumed themselves with some herbs; and the 
 fire was easily kindled, because they had a sort of 
 wood which, if they worked one piece against an- 
 other, as if they had been boring a hole, it took 
 fire." This method of making a fire, as every Ameri- 
 can knows, was practiced by all the aborigines of the 
 New World at the time of their discovery by the 
 white people. " They also saw a multitude of several 
 sorts of trees, such as they had not seen on the sea- 
 coast, and a great variety of birds, such as partridges 
 [ground doves] and nightingales [mocking birds]. 
 But they met with no four-footed creatures, except 
 the little cur dogs that do not bark." 
 
 These " little cur dogs that do not bark " may 
 have been raccoons, which the Indians had tamed, 
 
COLUMBUS AXD CUBA 23 
 
 or they may have been, as some writers think, an 
 animal which is now extinct. 
 
 There are but four mammals known to belong to 
 Cuba: two species of a small animal called the utia, 
 another known as the ahniqui, and the javalli, or 
 native wild hog. This last-named was also seen by 
 the first arrivals, for Herrera says : " In one of the 
 islands they killed with their swords a beast that was 
 like a wild boar." This much for the animals the 
 first Spaniards saw on land. 
 
 The houses of the Indians, they said, " were like 
 tents, with an open portal before them, covered with 
 leaves of trees [palm thatch], well fitted for the rain 
 and weather, with vents for the smoke and ridges 
 at the top. handsomely made. And within them 
 there was no other household stuff, or ornament, 
 than what the Indians carried aboard the ship- to 
 barter: but their beds were a net made fast to two 
 posts, and which are called hamacas" The first 
 Indians seen in Cuba fled from their huts, leaving 
 behind them crude nets and fishing tackle, and they 
 carried their drinking water in gourds or calabashes. 
 
 To the great disappointment of Columbus, his em- 
 bassy returned without any tidings of a Great Khan 
 or any other potentate, and with only the meager 
 gatherings of their journey. They reported that the 
 Indians were kind and polite enough to have been 
 inmates of courts, but that there were not any courts 
 or royal assemblages — neither, for that matter, any 
 royalty to assemble — for the only personage having 
 authority was called a cacique, and he went about 
 clad like the rest — that is. solely in " nature's garb." 
 
24 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 Neither in Cuba nor in the Bahamas did the 
 Spaniards find more than a mere trace of gold; now 
 and then an Indian nose ornament of that precious 
 metal which Columbus so ardently desired to se- 
 cure. But, without at the time being- aware of 
 its value, the Spaniards found a treasure far more 
 precious than gold: the since famous Indian corn, 
 or maize, the golden grains of which, so far as we 
 can ascertain, were first gathered in Cuba. "They 
 [the Indians | had much ground sowed with their 
 roots \ manioc] and that sort of corn called mayz, 
 well tasted, either boyPd or ground into flour." 
 It will be well to remember that the present Latin 
 name of this corn was derived directly from the In- 
 dian: one of the many words for which we are in- 
 debted to the American aborigines. 
 
 The ambassadors also saw vast quantities of fine- 
 spun cotton— a hutful, in fact — from which the In- 
 dians wove their girdles and hammocks. These 
 natural gifts were not apreciated as they should have 
 been, for the shortsighted Spaniards were clamorous 
 only for gold; still they preserved some specimens 
 of the country's products, which were later exhibited 
 before the Spanish court, after Columbus had per- 
 formed his triumphal journey across Spain from 
 Palos to Barcelona. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE SEARCH FOB CTPA3TGO 
 
 " Being asked about gold and pearls, the natives 
 of Cuba said there was an abundance at Bohio. point- 
 ing to the eastward. . . . By this name of Bohio 
 [which was the island later called Hispaniola] it 
 seemed the Indians would signify it was a land full 
 of bohios — that is. cottages [or huts]." * 
 
 The final departure of Columbus from Cuba was 
 practically taken from the port of Baracoa. twenty- 
 two miles distant from which, with a few small har- 
 bors intervening, is Cape May si. the extreme eastern 
 tip of the island. At the present time the tower of 
 the Faro Concha, or shell lighthouse, is one of the 
 notable landmarks of Cuba, with its light one hun- 
 dred and twenty-eight feet above the sea. and visible 
 seventeen miles in clear weather. From this point, 
 as in the days of Columbus, when it was doubled by 
 him in 1492. all mariners take their departure 
 through the Windward Passage to southwestern Haiti. 
 Jamaica, and the Isthmus of Panama. It still re- 
 tains, as we may note, its aboriginal name: and in 
 fact, though the Indians of Cuba were long since 
 
 * In the Indian langnasre : Bo. great : lio, country — the 
 Country. 
 
26 
 
 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 exterminated by the cruel Spaniards, they have left 
 behind them ineffaceable evidences of their former 
 existence in this beautiful island. 
 
 Other relics of these gentle people have been 
 found in their implements of agriculture and the 
 chase, such as stone hatchets, arrow heads, hoes, fish- 
 ing " sinkers," and stone seats. Not many years ago 
 a most valuable " find " was made of some Indian 
 skulls, in a great cave not far from Cape Maysi, 
 which had lain so long there, in the bottom of the 
 cavern, that they were entirely covered, as if petri- 
 fied, with a deposit of stone, formed by water which 
 held lime in solution dropping from the roof. I 
 
 shall in a future 
 chapter allude to 
 the fate of these 
 innocent natives, 
 who were, through 
 no fault of their 
 own, made the 
 victims of Spanish 
 hate and cruelty. 
 Instead of following directly after Columbus, as 
 he stretched across the Windward Passage in quest 
 of Boliio, which was also called by the natives Babe- 
 que, let us complete our investigations into his con- 
 nection with the island of Cuba. Anticipating by 
 nearly eighteen months the actual sequence of events, 
 we shall find that he returned to this coast in April, 
 1494, while the town of Isabella was being built and 
 put in order. Taking up the thread of exploration 
 at Cape Maysi, which he had called " Alpha and 
 
 Seat carved of stone (Bahamas). 
 
THE SEARCH FOR CIPANGO 27 
 
 Omega/ 7 Columbus sailed along the southern coast 
 of Cuba westerly until he came to the Bay of Guan- 
 tanamo, which he called Puerto Grande, and with 
 the beauty of which he was impressed ; for " the 
 entrance was narrow and winding, though deep; the 
 harbor expanded within like a beautiful lake, in the 
 bosom of a wild and mountainous country covered 
 with trees, some of them in blossom, others bear- 
 ing fruit." Landing here, the Spaniards found 
 traces of Indians, who had fled at their approach, 
 but who left a plentiful supply of fish, utias, and 
 iguanas roasting before open fires, and spread out 
 as if for a banquet, and which the half-famished 
 sailors greedily devoured. Guantanamo (pronounced 
 guan-tahn'-ah-mo) was the scene of another invasion, 
 four hundred and four years later, when the Ameri- 
 can marines engaged in the war with Spain landed 
 here — the first of our armed men to " take soil " in 
 this island. Theirs was the first blood shed in the 
 conflict with the Spanish guerrillas in this war, and 
 all Americans will hereafter regard this beautiful 
 bay with renewed interest, since its waters were red- 
 dened by the blood of heroes fighting in the cause 
 of Cuban liberty. 
 
 Coasting still westerly, Columbus espied and en- 
 tered the harbor of Santiago de Cuba, its tortuous 
 channel guarded by stupendous cliffs, since crowned 
 by picturesque Morro Castle. As we shall devote 
 a future chapter to this region when we narrate the 
 story of Cuban settlement and conquest, we will not 
 tarry now, but continue on after the Admiral, whose 
 fortunes we are for the moment following. He pur- 
 4 
 
28 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 sued his course along the steep-to shore, past the 
 beaches where, in 1898, the flower of Spain's navy 
 was crushed and sunk by the dash and gallantry of 
 American sailors. It may not be inappropriate to 
 pause a moment and note one more strange coin- 
 cidence connected with the sinking of Cervera's fleet, 
 in addition to the one we mentioned in the first 
 chapter. Among the battle ships that so bravely 
 came out to meet their fate on that bright morning, 
 the 3d of July, 1898, was one named the Cristobal 
 Colon, anglice Christopher Columbus. Possessing 
 superior speed to the others, and making a longer 
 flight than its companion war ships, it was the last 
 to be destroyed, and was driven ashore and sunk 
 within sight of the very point whence Columbus took 
 his departure from the coast of Cuba for the more 
 southern island of Jamaica! 
 
 This departure was on the 3d of May, 1494. After 
 discovering and coasting the northern shore of Ja- 
 maica, and satisfying himself that it was not the 
 auriferous Babeque, he returned once more to the 
 Cuban coast, making land at the high point which he 
 called Cabo de la Cruz, a name it bears to-day. In- 
 land rose to the sky glorious and cloud-wreathed Tur- 
 quino, a mountain of greater altitude than any other 
 in the Antilles ; but he was not to be lured backward, 
 and continued still to the west. It was not long be- 
 fore the Spanish caravels were entangled in that laby- 
 rinth of isles, islets, and reefs, so beautiful to observe 
 as they lay fresh and verdurous upon the glassy 
 waters, but so perplexing to a navigator, to which 
 Columbus gave the name of Gardens of the Queen 
 
THE SEARCH FOR CIPANGO 29 
 
 (las J airlines de la Reina). The shores of the 
 largest islands and of the mainland were popu- 
 lous with the same innocent Indians he had seen on 
 the north coast and in the Bahamas, and they were 
 bountifully supplied with fish, tortoises, " dumb 
 dogs," parrots, and scarlet flamingoes. Here the 
 Spaniards observed that curious mode of " fishing 
 with a fish," pursued by the Indians with the remora : 
 " Tying a line of great length to the tail of this fish, 
 the Indians permitted it to swim at large until it 
 perceived its prey, when, darting down swiftly, it 
 attached itself by its sucking disks (on the top of its 
 head) to the throat of a fish, or to the underside of 
 a tortoise; nor did it relinquish its prey until both 
 were drawn up by the fishermen and taken out of 
 the water. In this way the Spaniards witnessed the 
 taking of a tortoise of immense size, and Fernando 
 Columbus affirms that he himself saw a shark caught 
 in the same manner on the coast of Yeragua." 
 
 More open navigation succeeded to the laby- 
 rinthine archipelago, and, a high mountain being 
 sighted, Columbus landed again on the main island, 
 probably somewhere near the port of the present city 
 of Trinidad, where, from the assembled Indians, he 
 received such information as confirmed him in the 
 belief that he was indeed on the coast of Asia. Borne 
 by spicy breezes westward, within sight of a shore 
 then populous with Indians, but now practically de- 
 serted, the Spaniards passed the inlet making toward 
 the present city of Cienfuegos, and then to their 
 farthest point in this direction, a little beyond the Bay 
 of Batabano. Says the great Humboldt, who coasted 
 
30 
 
 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 this same shore in 1801: "These regions possess a 
 charm that is wanting in the greater part of the ~New 
 World, for they recall to the mind memories which 
 cluster around the greatest names of the Spanish 
 monarchy — Columbus and Hernan Cortes. It was 
 on the southern coast of the island of Cuba, between 
 the Bay of Jagua and the Isle of Pines, that Colum- 
 bus, during his second voyage, beheld with admira- 
 
 Indians and canoe. (From an old print.) 
 
 tion ' that mysterious king who communicated with 
 his subjects by signs only, and that group of men 
 wearing long white gOAvns, like begging friars, while 
 all the rest of the people were naked.' ' Usually 
 accurate, Humboldt in this instance is slightly at 
 fault, for it was not Columbus, but one of his fright- 
 ened archers, who had penetrated the forest in ad- 
 
THE SEARCH FOR CIPANGO 31 
 
 vance of his comrades, and who related this fanciful 
 tale to his credulous commander. But Columbus 
 believed it ; though doubtless it was false, as no others 
 like these men were ever seen afterward. 
 
 "When at a point beyond Batabano, which Colum- 
 bus called Serafin, he was less than twenty miles dis- 
 tant from the north coast of the island, and if he 
 could but have looked across, the error would have 
 been dispelled in which all the rest of his life he 
 believed: that Cuba was a continent, and probably 
 Asia, " beyond the boundaries of the Old World as 
 laid down by Ptolemy." But he saw a mountain to 
 the southward, and, instead of continuing on, westerly 
 and northerly, he sailed for what is now known as 
 the Isle of Pines, and which he named Evangelista. 
 It was reserved for Ocampo, in 1508, to first circum- 
 navigate Cuba, and obtain the credit for the informa- 
 tion that it was indubitably an island. Thus, in igno- 
 rance that he had come so near to solving one of the 
 greatest and most perplexing problems of his life, 
 Columbus turned his back on Cuba, and retraced his 
 course, easterly at first, then southerly, to Jamaica 
 again. In brief, he coasted the southern shores of 
 the latter island, thence made over to the south coast 
 of Haiti, for the first time bringing these regions to 
 view, and, after sailing completely around the last- 
 named island, arrived at Isabella early in Septem- 
 ber, 1194, after nearly five months' absence, worn 
 out with bodily fatigues and mental suffering. 
 
 Once more Columbus was destined to look upon 
 the southern coast of Cuba, and this was near the end 
 of his last and most disastrous voyage, in the year 
 
32 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 1503. He made, as we know, four voyages to Amer- 
 ica: in the first discovering the Bahamas, Cuba, and 
 the north coast of Haiti, or Hispaniola; in the sec- 
 ond some of the Caribbees, the Virgin Islands, Puerto 
 Rico, and Jamaica; in the third striking farther to 
 the south, discovering the island of Trinidad and 
 the north coast of South America at Paria; in the 
 fourth, and last, making a wider sweep and reaching 
 the east coast of Honduras. And it was on this last 
 despairing venture of his, when he was already in- 
 firm from the many vicissitudes of his seafaring life, 
 that he came, in a roundabout way, to the scene of 
 his explorations in 1494. 
 
 It was on the 30th of May, 1503, that, in en- 
 deavoring to make Hispaniola from the coast of 
 Veragua, the shattered caravels of Columbus were 
 driven by a storm within sight of the Queen's Gar- 
 dens. His vessels had been bored full of holes by the 
 teredo, and, to add to his apprehension, a terrible 
 tempest drove them at its mercy among the cays. 
 The crews were worn out with watching and bailing, 
 and both vessels of the small fleet were shattered by 
 coming into collision. In this condition they arrived 
 at the province of Macaca, near Cabo de la Cruz, 
 where, nine years before, Columbus had been so 
 well treated by the Indians. They were still kind 
 and hospitable, and furnished the suffering mariners 
 with a store of cassava bread, being as yet free and 
 in possession of all the bounties of Nature. Taking 
 aboard the bread, together with wood and water, the 
 caravels proceeded, in a sinking condition, to Jamaica, 
 where they w T ere run ashore, and where Columbus 
 
THE SEARCH FOR CIPANGO 33 
 
 and his men remained a year, before assistance came 
 to them from Hispaniola. This episode forms the 
 subject of another story, and will be narrated in due 
 course; yet we can not but pause to reflect upon the 
 terrible changes that had already been wrought in 
 the life of our hero, whom we saw at the outset of 
 his Cuban voyagings buoyant and full of hope, 
 thrilled with the thought that he was soon to be in 
 converse with kings and potentates; now broken and 
 depressed, victim of royal distrust and official vil- 
 lainies, menaced by the Indians of Jamaica, a pris- 
 oner on his shipwrecked hulk upon the strand. 
 
 One of the most delightful of my recollections 
 is that of a scene I once viewed on the north coast 
 of Haiti. I was then on board ship, passing through 
 the " canal," or narrow passage, between Haiti and 
 the smaller island of Tortuga. The water was as 
 smooth as glass, and between Tortuga and the main 
 island numerous boats and canoes were passing, each 
 little craft bearing a black cultivator of the soil to or 
 from his garden, and laden with fruits and vege- 
 tables, or else containing a sable fisherman with the 
 primitive implements of his humble calling. On the 
 one hand lay the gray crags of Tortuga, the Turtle 
 Island, so named by Columbus, and years after he 
 had discovered it the haunt of bloodthirsty buccaneers; 
 on the other the hill-tossed island of Haiti, its moun- 
 tains blue-tipped with distant haze, while near at 
 hand lay smiling valleys, abloom with many a flower. 
 It was a scene of peace and plenty, of picturesque 
 contentment : such, according to my fancy, as greeted 
 
34 
 
 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 the eyes of the Admiral after he had crossed the 
 Windward Passage, in December, 1492, and drew 
 
 * "TOT 
 
 near this same island of Haiti, or Hispaniola. He 
 had been told by the natives of Cuba that Bohio, or 
 
THE SEARCH FOR CIPAXGO 35 
 
 Babeque, tlie Land of Gold, lay east and southward; 
 and there is every reason for believing that Haiti 
 was the land they meant. The name by which it 
 is at present known is aboriginal, Ai-ti, the High- 
 land, one portion of which was also called by the 
 natives Quisqueya, or Mother of the Earth, and is 
 now known as Santo Domingo. 
 
 The first port in Bohio, or Babeqne. that Colum- 
 bus entered he called San Xicolas. and he found it 
 safe, capacious, and deep, encompassed with thick 
 woods, the land hilly: a pleasant river ran into the 
 harbor, and on the shore there were many canoes as 
 large as a brigantine of twenty-five oars. Pish were 
 abundant in the bay and birds of sweetest song dis- 
 ported in the trees on shore, while the air was balmy 
 and the weather delightful. He did not make a long 
 stay in this noble harbor, but sent the little Xina, 
 smallest caravel of the fleet, ahead to make sound- 
 ings, slowly following in the flagship Santa Maria. 
 Some time before leaving the coast of Cuba Cap- 
 tain Pinzon, in the Pinta. had sailed ahead of the 
 others, and left Columbus with only the two ves- 
 sels we have named. This matter gave Columbus 
 great concern, for a storm was brewing when he 
 arrived in the channel, the dangers of which he 
 escaped by seeking a " lee " under the cliffs of pic- 
 turesque Tortuga. 
 
 From this coign of vantage he gazed long and 
 earnestly upon the beautiful island across the narrow 
 strip of water, and pondered upon a name for it 
 that should fittingly imply its great advantages. To 
 the first island he landed on in the Bahamas he 
 
30 
 
 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 had given the name of San Salvador, " in honor of 
 God " ; to the second La Concepcion, " with respect 
 to the Mother of God " ; to the third Femandina, in 
 honor of King Ferdinand; to the fourth Isabella, 
 after the Queen; to the fifth Juana, after the Prin- 
 cess, their daughter; and to the sixth, and last, La 
 Espanola, or the Spanish Island (since corrupted to 
 Ilispaniola), "though some thought it should have 
 been called Castellana, after Castile." Though the 
 names bestowed by Columbus were euphonious, jet 
 most of them have been supplanted by others, and in 
 two or three instances the Indian appellations have 
 been restored. 
 
those f omad in iLe Baltawtaf and Cobs- La-rmg the 
 
 : - • ■ .• ■ . ; ^ - - : - 
 
 - 
 '—;.- :-;;■:- ;-:.-." Lirje 7 : -~- - ::: r^:"/- -■: 
 "lei: :e:- :_- > -—--/_ ; ":-.-- i .;..'.' za:~.a a'acZ^ : . 
 
 rl- '. — r'. V'hl --;- "• >-i ;; — : ^ r V: L7_* : A . >A- 
 
 — -; .' - r- : _:-■_- £e1.- r —-i": :_r_: :_LL_ze li<: 
 >i aaa : . ~a-a :■--. -.-._,':_ ■--:- -::jZ_:: v. v:' — : 
 
 saeh a$ ibe unarm, or pimeajipie 
 
 V - - ■ 
 
 rr. - :—. i.J_'. ""-J- .ll AA AAA' A.'.- ^ - - '-'-'- '-'- 
 
 AcA a./-_ >z. _ _ :-.'-- -~aa- a'a- : . :■ ". r a. :.:- 
 
 eosBpasMid to like urosie of a drum made from a !:•!- 
 Ive: - - :-:~ere: -.-- -y :_ ~-e~ Lie: ".: aa . , r 
 
 ■1: :^1 e ' - --.-;_ ~r: I- :.-_ \:~ :-:': ; :'::~ 
 
 faenoEL TLej Lad eanoes dn£ nud 
 
 : / 
 
 --:-: .r_ -li: --.:-.^ :z a \^aa. :r_ -ile: - - --;i~ 
 
38 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 age/' and knew nothing of iron or copper). They 
 could not but be attracted by gold, which they found 
 in glittering particles in the streams, and so ductile 
 that they easily wrought it into rude ornaments; but 
 they seem to have known no use for any other metal. 
 They could not understand the inordinate greed for 
 gold possessed by Columbus and his men, for they 
 had not the vice of covetousness, and when such gold 
 as they had was asked of them they gave it freely. 
 
 The first woman captured at San Nicolas had a 
 nose plate of gold, and this kind of ornament was 
 worn more than any other, except, perhaps, rude 
 anklets and bracelets. This female captive was very 
 much alarmed, as the Spaniards had only caught her 
 after a long chase through the forest, and was brought, 
 struggling and shrieking, aboard the flagship, where 
 she cowered in apprehension. To allay her fears, 
 " the Admiral gave her hawk bells [which were 
 small and round, something like old-fashioned sleigh- 
 bells] and strings of glass beads, then caused a shirt 
 to be put on her, and so sent her away, with three of 
 the Indians he had brought with him [from Cuba] 
 and three Spaniards, to bear her company to her habi- 
 tation." 
 
 She was then the proudest and vainest woman in 
 Haiti, for when she met her red-skinned sisters, who 
 had no beads nor jingling hawk bells, and in fact not 
 even clothing on, she displayed her treasures with 
 all the condescension of a queen. After that there 
 was no lack of Indians on the shores to see the great 
 ships go by, or of red men in canoes who flocked 
 about them, desiring to exchange gold for paltry 
 
AN INDIAN PAEADISE 39 
 
 baubles like beads and bells. The old historians tell 
 us that they came about, paddling, or swimming, with 
 one hand, and holding up nuggets of gold, saying, in 
 their guttural voices, " chug, chug/ 7 like so many 
 frogs in a pond, by which they meant that they 
 wished to exchange their gold for hawk bells. One 
 Indian brought a piece of gold weighing several 
 ounces, which he gave a Spaniard for one of these 
 small bells, and then leaped overboard and swam 
 ashore, where he ran as fast as he could, seeming to 
 fear that the Spaniard might feel 
 that he had been cheated and wish 
 to get the bell back again! This 
 bartering, however, mostly took 
 place a few days after the first land- 
 ing in Haiti, which was on the 6th 
 of December, 1492. As the Span- 
 iards pursued their way eastward, 
 they passed such beautiful bays and 
 harbors, noble headlands, and glori- 
 ous valleys through 
 which meandered spark- 
 ling streams, that their 
 senses were ravished, Pestle of stone, with carved face. 
 
 even their brutal na- 
 tures softened. One of these fine harbors is now 
 known as Port de Paix, or the Port of Peace ; another, 
 which Columbus called Yal de Paraiso, or the Yale of 
 Paradise, was probably the deep Bay of Acul, of 
 which he wrote : " I have now been at sea twenty- 
 three years, with scarcely any intermission, and have 
 seen the East and the West; but in all those parts I 
 
40 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 have never witnessed so much of perfection in harbors 
 as in this." 
 
 " Between Hispaniola and Tortnga they met an 
 Indian in a canoe, and admired that, being in a rough 
 sea, it had not swallowed him up. The Admiral in- 
 quiring for Cipango, he thought he had meant Cibao, 
 and pointed where it lay, that being the place where 
 most gold was found in that island." It was probably 
 in the Bay of Acul that " the Admiral was informed 
 that the lord of the territory, whom they called the 
 cacique, was coming with about two hundred men 
 to see the ships; and though he was young they car- 
 ried him in a bier on their shoulders, and he had a 
 tutor and counselors. When he came aboard it was 
 observed with admiration how great respect they 
 paid him, and how gravely he behaved himself. . . . 
 The next day, though the wind was contrary and 
 blew hard, the sea did not swell, by reason of the 
 shelter the island of Tortnga affords that coast. . . . 
 The cacique gave the Admiral a gold girdle and 
 some plates of gold, and the men of the crews traded 
 with the natives for golden grains. . . . The people 
 carried meat, calabashes with water in them, and good 
 bread made of maize, or Indian corn. On Saturday, 
 the 2 2d of December, the great cacique of the coun- 
 try, who was in reality a king, sent the Admiral a 
 girdle he wore and a mask with ears, tongue, and nose 
 of beaten gold. The girdle was adorned with small 
 fish bones like seed pearls, curiously wrought, four 
 fingers broad. . . . The Indians brought articles of 
 cotton and grains of gold for barter, and above one 
 hundred and twenty canoes came to the ships with 
 
AN INDIAN PARADISE 41 
 
 provisions, and earthenware pitchers handsomely 
 made and painted, full of fresh water. They also 
 gave their sort of spice, which they called axi [or aje, 
 pronounced ah'-hi], and which they put into dishes 
 of water and drank it up, to show it was good." 
 
 The name of the great cacique, or king, was 
 Guacanagari (pronounced gwa-can-ahg'ar-i), and as 
 he felt it beneath his dignity to leave his capital, 
 even to welcome such distinguished strangers, he sent 
 a most pressing invitation for Columbus to visit him 
 without delay. The latter was now pretty well con- 
 vinced that he had at last arrived at or near the 
 region described by Marco Polo as Cipango, as he then 
 wrote in his journal. Indeed, had he not received 
 most substantial evidence already that he was now 
 near the Land of Gold? It was easy to find a resem- 
 blance between the two words: Cipango, of the Far 
 East, and Cibao (pronounced see-bah'-o), the gold- 
 producing region of Haiti, or Santo Domingo. Xo 
 wonder that the imagination of Columbus was now 
 all aflame, and that he lost no time in accepting the 
 royal invitation. 
 
 " On Monday, the 24th of December, the Ad- 
 miral left this harbor [of Acul] to visit Guacanagari, 
 being only four or five leagues [twelve to fifteen 
 miles] distant. Seeing the sea calm he went to bed, 
 for he had not slept for two days and a night." 
 
 This is the first recorded instance of neglect on 
 the part of Columbus during the voyage thus far, 
 and it may be ascribed to the peaceful nature of the 
 scenes he had been among the past two weeks and 
 more, the serenity of the air, the gentle people, and 
 
42 
 
 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 the deceitful calms of the sea channel. At all events, 
 he went to sleep in his cabin, while the crew also, 
 lulled by the same influences, and relieved of the 
 master's watchful eye, allowed their weariness to 
 overcome them. For more than four months, or since 
 
 Monsters of the air and deep. (From an old engraving.) 
 
 leaving the port of Palos, they had been constantly 
 on the watch. In crossing the Atlantic's broad ex- 
 panse they feared the great ingulfing seas, and 
 toward the end of the ocean voyage the trade winds, 
 always blowing from one direction — from the east — 
 seemed to augur the impossibility of their return to 
 Spain. " For," they reasoned, " if we get to the bot- 
 tom of this watery mountain, with the wind blowing 
 against us (the earth being round, according to Co- 
 
AN INDIAN PARADISE 43 
 
 lumbus), how shall we ever climb it again on the 
 homeward voyage ? " Then, again, they had feared 
 the terrible sea serpents and the mermaids, the sub- 
 marine monsters, and the dragons on shores new to 
 them; for they were coasting an altogether unknown 
 land, which was, in their imaginations, filled with 
 evil things of every sort. 
 
 But now the seas were calm, and the adjacent 
 shores were shining with the beauty of a terrestrial 
 paradise. Now the crews threw away their fears; 
 they were certain that the end of their long and 
 dangerous voyaging was nearly reached, for wherever 
 the hitherto elusive gold should be found, there Co- 
 lumbus had promised to stop and rest. 
 
 Now that the golden country was almost within 
 sight, the fears of these superstitious mariners were 
 allayed, and they gave themselves over to a sense 
 of security which the condition of seas and currents 
 by no means warranted. Never, in fact, had they 
 needed more to keep awake and a good watch out 
 ahead, for that very night, after leaving Acul, as the 
 flagship and the caravel drifted over the glassy sea 
 within sight of land, the helm of the former in sole 
 charge of a boy, the evil spirits of the deep combined 
 to bring them disaster. The winds off shore were 
 but balmy zephyrs, laden with sweet odors of the 
 tropic woods, and there was no intimation of the fate 
 in store for these weary mariners from Spain. But 
 while they were wrapped in slumber the treacherous 
 sea currents, for which this coast is noted now, forced 
 the Santa Maria upon a coral reef covered with 
 sand, and there she stuck, to the terror of the hap- 
 5 
 
44 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 less boy in charge of the helm, and of the suddenly 
 awakened crew. This is the only mention at all of a 
 boy being with Columbus on this voyage, and I am 
 sorry to say it is the last; but, at all events, if the 
 first disaster to a European ship in the New World 
 came about through the negligence of a boy, it was 
 while he was trying bravely to do a man's work; and 
 my sympathies have always gone out to him. 
 
 Well, of course Columbus — who, being a sailor, 
 was a light sleeper — at once darted out of his cabin 
 and berated the mariners ; he ordered them to lighten 
 the ship by throwing overboard everything on deck, 
 and as this did not have effect, to cut away the masts. 
 Finally a boat's crew was sent out to carry an anchor 
 to windward, and the little Mha (" Mna " meaning 
 a girl, you know) came to the rescue of the great 
 mother ship and hovered about anxiously till morn- 
 ing. She lay by till daylight, rendering all the assist- 
 ance possible, but when dawn appeared it was seen 
 that the Santa Maria would soon fall to pieces and 
 prove a total wreck. The third caravel of this his- 
 toric squadron, the Pinta, you will remember, had 
 left the others at the eastern end of Cuba and gone 
 off, no one knew whither, on a cruise by herself; so 
 into the smallest vessel of the fleet it would now be 
 necessary to crowd the crews of both the flagship and 
 the little caravel. 
 
 But succor came from a source which, to say the 
 least, seemed to Columbus rather dubious, though 
 he had at the outset dispatched a messenger for re- 
 lief. The man who so gallantly came to the rescue 
 in this time of direst need was none other than 
 
AN INDIAN PARADISE 
 
 45 
 
 Cacique Guacanagari; and I hope this fact will be re- 
 membered, for it will serve to bring into strong relief, 
 a little later on, the black ingratitude of these same 
 Spaniards. AVhen the flagship struck on the reef 
 she was less than six miles from Guarico (gwa'-ri-co), 
 the seat of King Guacanagari's court, and which I 
 have ascertained to be near and on the shore of the 
 bay at present called Cape Haitien. Appealed to by 
 the messenger of Co- 
 lumbus, the cacique 
 promptly sent out a 
 fleet of canoes, and so 
 zealous and industri- 
 ous were his Indian 
 subjects that every 
 article on the ship was 
 soon carried ashore, 
 the wreck dismantled 
 and the wreckage also 
 sent to Guarico. These 
 details have been pre- 
 served through the accounts given by Columbus and 
 by local traditions, and can be relied upon as accurate. 
 And thus it came about that, perforce, Columbus, as 
 the guest of an Indian king, celebrated the first 
 Christmas ever observed in the Xew World. It was 
 on Monday evening that he set out to visit the cacique, 
 and shortly after midnight that the ship ran aground. 
 Christmas fell on a Tuesday the year in which Amer- 
 ica was discovered by Columbus; the morn had dawned 
 and the day was well begun — probably it was by that 
 time midday — and the wreckage of the Santa Maria 
 
 The Santa Maria. 
 
46 TIIE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 was ashore at Guarico, before the Admiral could bring 
 himself to leave his ill-fated craft. Then he was 
 carried in a en hoc to the Indian village, where the 
 cacique received him with deepest sympathy, even 
 shedding tears, it is said, over his mishaps, and placed 
 all he had at his disposal. 
 
 It was here, at Guarico, that the bartering of 
 trinkets for gold was carried on with such profit to 
 the Spaniards; for, 1 hough the Indians had all their 
 wreckage and merchandise in their possession and 
 care, every article of which was incomparably pre- 
 cious in their estimation, yet they scorned to appro- 
 priate a single thing. Their honesty was thus well 
 proved, and it is no matter of wonder that Columbus 
 declared them and their king to be pre-eminent in 
 virtue, and the finest people he had ever met. 
 
 Not quite content with giving them shelter and 
 succor, King Guacanagari ordered a great feast pre- 
 pared, after the Nina had been taken to an anchor- 
 age abreast the town, at which there were served a 
 great variety of native fruits, vegetables, fish, and 
 game. After this banquet, at which the visitors were 
 served by Indian maidens, modest and desirous to 
 please, the cacique cleansed his hands by rubbing 
 them with fragrant herbs, after the manner of King 
 Montezuma of Mexico, who was taken prisoner by 
 Ilernan Cortes twenty-four years later. Tie wore, 
 it is stated, a golden coronet, which he gave to Colum- 
 bus when the latter admired it, his example being 
 followed by two of his subchiefs from the hills, who 
 were likewise adorned. They did not seem to care 
 for clothing, but when presented by the Admiral with 
 
 
AM IUDIAM PARADISE 47 
 
 a shirt and a pair of gloves King Guacanagari felt 
 such a thrill of pride er probably ran through 
 
 his frame before. When Columbus ordered a Moor- 
 ish bowman to exhibit his skill, and a lombard to 
 be fired, his astonishme./ ap jat, and his thou- 
 
 sand attendants fell to the ground filled with a fear 
 that nearly stunned them, for they had never before 
 witnessed such execution nor heard such terrible 
 sour. hen the lightning fiashed and 
 
 thunder rolled among the hills. 
 
CHAPTEE V 
 
 FRUITS OF THE FIRST VOYAGE 
 
 Christmas Day, 1492, at its dawning, had seen 
 the Spaniards at the mercy of the wind and waves, 
 at noon the honored guests of Cacique Guacanagari, 
 at night refreshed and comforted. 
 
 New Year's Day, 1493, found these same men 
 recovered, in a measure, from their great disaster, 
 and ready for departure. Finding that the one small 
 caravel remaining could not carry all his crew back 
 to Spain, and being importuned by many of his men 
 for permission to stay in this land of gold and 
 charms innumerable, Columbus resolved to build here 
 a fort and leave a garrison, to hold the place and seek 
 for gold, while he should continue on the homeward 
 voyage. And so expeditious were these eager Span- 
 iards — some to free themselves from his restraint, 
 and the rest to get away — that scarce a week sufficed 
 for the construction of the fort out of the wreckage 
 of the Santa Maria. From the planks and timbers 
 of the flagship a small but strong structure was built, 
 with the aid of the natives, having a deep vault be- 
 neath and surrounded by a ditch. It was called 
 La Navidad, or The Nativity, in honor and remem- 
 brance of the day on which the wreck occurred, and 
 placed in charge of Captain Arana, a relative of 
 48 
 
FRUITS OF THE FIRST VOYAGE 49 
 
 the deceased wife of Columbus, with a garrison of 
 forty men. This fort was destroyed and the gar- 
 rison massacred before the return of Columbus on 
 his second voyage to America; but its site, though 
 for centuries forgotten, has at last been approxi- 
 mately determined. The Admiral, as has been 
 already pointed out, kept a daily record of his adven- 
 tures, which was accurate to a fault. After leaving 
 Cuba, the points he visited and where any important 
 events took place are plainly indicated. Thus in 1892, 
 just four centuries after he had been here, I myself 
 was enabled to identify the spot called La Navidad; 
 and, further, to collect some relics of the wreck and 
 fort. It may seem almost incredible, perhaps, that 
 one should be able to recover anything of importance 
 from a wreck that took place more than four hun- 
 dred years ago; but it was my good fortune to find 
 what, beyond any reasonable doubt, was an anchor 
 from the Santa Maria, which had been sent ashore 
 with other wreckage and left at Guarico. We have 
 it on the authority of Columbus himself, that every- 
 thing portable on the ship was taken off by the 
 friendly Indians and landed at the Indian village, 
 even to the last nail and bolt of the stranded vessel. 
 This ancient anchor, then, was found by me, identi- 
 fied, and later sent to the Columbian Exposition, 
 where, in the " monastery of La Rabida," it was 
 placed on exhibition — one of the most precious relics 
 of the many contained in that interesting reproduc- 
 tion of the famous structure. 
 
 I allude to this discovery merely to link the 
 remote past with the present, and to make as vivid 
 
A portrait of Columbus. 
 
FRUITS OF THE FIRST VOYAGE 51 
 
 as possible the events of the time we are investigat- 
 ing. I wish it were possible for me to declare that 
 I had found some living descendant of those gentle, 
 generous people who so royally entertained the per- 
 fidious Spaniards; but to-day, alas! not one survives. 
 Where those guileless Indians danced and sang, 
 spread rural feasts, and played their innocent games, 
 to-day a people of darker hue, whose ancestors were 
 brought here as slaves from Africa, and who are 
 scarcely more civilized than those Indians whom they 
 have supplanted, hold possession of the soil. 
 
 A few days after the fort was finished, or on the 
 4th of January, 1493, the diminutive Nina set sail 
 from Guarico, leaving the simple natives staring 
 after her, and in the fort itself and on the shore the 
 forty Spaniards who were to await there the return 
 of Columbus, in accordance with his promise. Her 
 next halt was at the base of a high, tent-shaped moun- 
 tain, which Columbus named Monte Cristi, and near 
 which disembogued a river, at whose mouth the water 
 casks were filled. This stream Columbus named the 
 Rio del Oro, or River of Gold, because its sands con- 
 tained glittering particles which clung to the hoops 
 of the casks as the sailors were rolling them in the 
 water. Some have thought that these particles were 
 not in reality gold, but the subsequent finding of that 
 precious metal in great abundance in its mountain 
 tributaries makes it probable that the sands of the 
 river were actually golden. The Spaniards had col- 
 lected a large quantity of gold from Guacanagari and 
 other Indians, and the signs were so favorable that 
 Columbus really expected to find that by the time he 
 
52 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 should return to La Navidad the garrison he left 
 there would have accumulated at least a ton of grains 
 and nuggets. 
 
 It was at the mouth of the Rio del Oro, or Yaqui, 
 as it is now called, that the sailors were fright- 
 ened at sight of a manatee, but soothed by the ex- 
 planation of their commander that it was probably 
 a mermaid. An account is given of such an animal, 
 a manatee or mermaid, which was kept by one of the 
 Haitian caciques in a small pond, and which fre- 
 quently swam about with several children on its back. 
 It was called Matoorun, and on hearing its name 
 pronounced would crawl out of the water to the hut 
 of the cacique; but having been struck with a stick 
 at one time by a Spaniard it would never after come 
 out of its pond when anybody with clothes on was in 
 sight, its friends, the natives, being naked. 
 
 Stories like this were much in vogue immediately 
 after the first voyage to America, and in the engrav- 
 ings of that period many a great sea monster never 
 seen by man was represented. Some of these levia- 
 thans, indeed, were shown as tamed by the holy 
 men sent out from Spain, and swimming about with 
 them on their backs. 
 
 A sight that gladdened all eyes, in the Bay of 
 Monte Cristi, was the long - absent Pinta sailing 
 toward her sister caravel, commanded by Martin 
 Alonso Pinzon, whose brother, Vicente Yahez, was 
 captain of the Ma. Columbus was very wroth with 
 Martin Alonso for sailing off contrary to his orders, 
 but they patched up a truce until old Spain was 
 reached, when the latter was so roughly treated, 
 
FRUITS OF THE FIRST VOYAGE 53 
 
 both by the Admiral and King Ferdinand, that he 
 died soon after his arrival. However, though we 
 might wish to dilate npon the character of Columbus, 
 esjDeeially his pettiness and spites, we must not linger 
 by the way. but hasten on with him to the end of his 
 voyage. A readjustment of the crowded crews was 
 made, information exchanged, vessels put in trim for 
 the long cruise, and then the two reunited caravels 
 sailed together along the north coast of Hispaniola. 
 They ran across great sea turtles " as big as 
 bucklers." sailed past a coast verdurous and fascinat- 
 ing. " level and beautiful." says Columbus. " with 
 tall mountains in the interior reminding me of the 
 sierras of Cordova: and the whole abounding in 
 streams, and offering views of such variety, that the 
 thousandth part can not be described. " So charmed 
 was he with this portion of the coast that he returned 
 to it in the latter part of that year and founded there 
 the first city in the Xew World. Cruising in com- 
 pany, the caravels passed by a high mountain with a 
 cloud-wreathed summit, from the silver-white appear- 
 ance of which Columbus called the natural harbor at 
 its foot Puerto Plata, or the Silver Port, around 
 which to-day is gathered a pretty settlement. Be- 
 yond this port, to the eastward, the caravels discov- 
 ered and entered the great Bay of Samana. in a cove 
 of which, not far from its outermost cape, occurred 
 the first encounter with the natives, when the first 
 blood was shed. These natives may have been a band 
 of predatory Caribs. the cannibals of the southern 
 islands, for they were far more warlike than any yet 
 seen, and they were on the alert against surprise and 
 
54 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 capture. Columbus had taken several of the other In- 
 dians with him as captives to adorn his triumph in 
 Spain, and fain would have made prisoners some of 
 these; but they sternly repelled him and his crews, 
 sending a flight of arrows among them as they landed. 
 This landing at the Bay of Arrows, as Columbus 
 called it, was the last the Spaniards made on this voy- 
 age. Thence they sailed away, intending to seek the 
 mythical island of the Amazons, of which they had 
 been told, but soon shifted their course for the home- 
 ward voyage to Spain. By so doing they pass beyond 
 our view, since we are inquiring into their doings in 
 America and not in the Old World. Readers of his- 
 tory know of the turbulent passage home, of the 
 eventual arrival at Palos, the triumphal march across 
 Spain to Barcelona, and the adulation poured upon 
 the successful Admiral, then at the zenith of his 
 fame. 
 
 In reviewing this first voyage of Columbus to 
 America, the scenes identified with which we have 
 described, it occurs to me that there were many 
 minor discoveries of importance besides the " discov- 
 ery " of the New World. We all know, of course, 
 that it has been denied, in fact, that he was the first 
 to make this " discovery " ; but we are not going to 
 discuss the voyages of the Norsemen to America. 
 It is enough for us to know that they did not make 
 their discoveries known, while Columbus awoke the 
 dormant energies of all Europe, and was in the van 
 of that movement by which the American continents 
 were not only explored but colonized. Doubtless 
 
FRUITS OF THE FIRST VOYAGE 55 
 
 some one else would soon have sailed a similar course 
 to his; and it has always been a matter of regret to 
 those who have had the cause of humanity at heart 
 that the French or English did not discover and civi- 
 lize those natives of the ^"ew World, rather than the 
 Spaniards. 
 
 However, passing by these great questions, let us 
 inquire into the nature of those minor findings of the 
 first voyage. In the first place, the variation of the 
 compass attracted the attention of Columbus and 
 caused him great uneasiness; then, as he proceeded, 
 the increasing strength of the trade winds, constantly 
 blowing from the east and northeast; after that the 
 vast weedy expanse of the Sargasso Sea, with its 
 floating seaweed bearing globules like small grapes, 
 whence the name. Strange birds appeared at inter- 
 vals on the voyage, increasing in number as land was 
 approached, like the gulls, sea swallows, the tropic 
 bird (Phaethon cethereas), the petrels, and perhaps 
 stray humming birds. When land was reached a 
 host of novel objects burst upon his astonished and 
 delighted senses. First the island itself, different 
 from any other segment of land he had ever seen; 
 then the inhabitants, with their copper-colored skins, 
 their nudity and innocence, their stone implements 
 (though similar articles were wrought by the stone- 
 age peoples of Europe, it must be confessed), their 
 crude pottery and ornaments, and above all the 
 canoas. It was from the aboriginal name of these 
 dugouts that the word " canoe " was derived. In 
 a letter written at Lisbon in 1493 Columbus says: 
 " In every one of these islands there are great num- 
 
56 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 bers of canoas, each one made from a solid log, 
 of a narrow shape, somewhat resembling our fustas, 
 but swifter in the water. They are navigated solely 
 by oars [paddles], and are of different sizes, most of 
 them containing seats for eighteen rowers. I saw 
 some of them with seventy or eighty rowers; and 
 with these they carry on a commerce among the 
 islands, which are innumerable." 
 
 The second island they visited in the Bahamas 
 " appeared to abound in game, having many meadows 
 and groves and some agreeable hills, with an infinite 
 variety of birds that sang sweetly and flew in flocks, 
 most of them different from what Spain affords." 
 
 " There were also many lakes [lagoons], and near 
 one of them they saw a creature like a crocodile, 
 seven feet long, and they throwing stones at him 
 he ran into the water, where they killed him with 
 their spears, admiring his largeness and frightful 
 shape. But time afterward made it appear that 
 those animals, being scaled and flayed, are good 
 meat, the flesh thereof being white and most valued 
 by the Indians; and in the island of Hispaniola they 
 call them y vanes [iguanas] . They also saw fishes of 
 fine colors; but no land creatures appeared except 
 large and tame snakes and parrots, and a sort of little 
 rabbits shaped like mice but bigger, which they called 
 utias" * 
 
 * It is a most interesting fact that a new species of this ratlike 
 animal, the utia, was discovered in 1891 on the Plana Keys, Ba- 
 hamas. It is called the Capromys Ingraliami. Having long been 
 regarded as extinct in the Bahamas, this rediscovery of the Ca- 
 promys, or utia, is looked upon as an event of importance. It is 
 
FRUITS OF THE FIRST VOYAGE 57 
 
 The Haitian Indians had also a small animal 
 called the curi, or agouti (Dasyprocta agouti), which 
 was sometimes served up at their repasts; but they 
 had no large domesticated animals, and no beasts of 
 burden of any sort. 
 
 Many words also were added to our language 
 after this first voyage, and many more were obtained 
 in Mexico: such as yucca, and the manioc, from 
 which the cassava, the Indian meal, was obtained; 
 mayz, or Indian corn, to which we are indebted for 
 both the word and the grain, of inestimable value 
 to the world at large; the anana, or pineapple, and 
 several other delicious fruits not common in the 
 North; caoba, or mahogany, liamaca, or hammock; 
 tabaco, cacao, etc. The native name for a hut was 
 bohio, meaning one common in the people; but a frail 
 shelter, such as the writer has many times slept be- 
 neath in the tropical forests of the West Indie-, was 
 an a joy pa. a word worthy of adoption into our lan- 
 guage, as it would be very serviceable. 
 
 Their king was called a cazique, or cacique; their 
 little gods, made of clay and carved from stone, were 
 zemes; the Supreme Being was known as Turey. Not 
 far from Cape Haitien there is a great cave from 
 which, the natives fabled, issued the first pair of 
 creatures in human shape that ever lived on the 
 island. Their priests ("when they had any) were 
 called butios, their national songs areitos fah-ray-ee- 
 tos); their dances, or diumbas, they executed to the 
 
 not much larger than a guinea pig, but the utia of Cuba is some- 
 times found two feet in length, and of twelve pounds' weight. 
 
58 
 
 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 music of cayvmbas and guiras (pronounced whe-ras), 
 which primitive instruments are in use to-day, the 
 last-named being merely a long gourd with scarified 
 surface, to evoke " music " from which a slender 
 stick is rubbed against it briskly. 
 
 From these few citations it will be seen that these 
 ignorant natives of the islands, discovered on that 
 first voyage to America, though they went about un- 
 clothed, yet had a name for everything expressive 
 of its use or nature; and, what is more, have con- 
 tributed somewhat to the enrichment of our own 
 vocabulary. 
 
 The guira, upper and lower 
 
CHAPTEE VI 
 
 THE CANNIBAL CAKIBS 
 
 In the preceding chapters I have described at 
 some length the first voyage of Columbus to the New 
 World because it was so prolific in strange adven- 
 tures, and resulted in so many new things the exist- 
 ence of which had not even been suspected by the 
 learned of the Old World. But his second voyage, 
 on which he started the 25th of September, 1493, 
 I shall use (to adapt a well-worn simile) merely as 
 a golden thread on which to string the pearls of 
 adventure. In the Life and Voyages of Columbus, 
 by Washington Irving, may be found all details per- 
 taining to his personality. My aim is to make appear 
 real and vivid the scenes not only of his cruisings and 
 adventures, but those of others who followed after 
 him — in their way equally interesting. 
 
 With a fleet of fourteen caravels and three large 
 caracks containing nearly twelve hundred sailors, 
 soldiers, cavaliers, priests, monks, and everything 
 necessary for successfully planting a colony in the 
 islands he had found, he left the harbor of Cadiz 
 and embarked on the waters of the deep. Sailing a 
 course more southerly than on the first voyage, he 
 finally sighted land, the second day of November, 
 about midway the chain of islands now known as the 
 6 59 
 
60 
 
 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 Lesser Antilles. This crescent-shaped archipelago ex- 
 tends from Puerto Rico to the north coast of South 
 America, describing the arc of a circle, and has been 
 fancifully called " the Bow of Ulysses." The indi- 
 vidual isles and islets composing this chain are in 
 
 p= 60 
 
 SECOND VOYAGE 
 IN 
 WEST INDIAN WATERS 
 
 SCALE OF MILES 
 
 The second voyage, 1493. 
 
 striking contrast with those of the Bahamas, being 
 for the most part detached mountain masses, isolated 
 peaks, and volcanic cones thrust up from the depths 
 of old Ocean. In fact, it has been conjectured that 
 they present the remains of a submerged continent, 
 sunk in some great cataclysm — all but the summits 
 of its highest mountains — and perhaps of that lost 
 Atlantis respecting which the early philosophers 
 speculated and the poets often wrote and sang. 
 Whether or no they at one time united the two con- 
 tinents of North and South America is a question 
 as yet undetermined. Scientific investigations, such 
 as deep-sea soundings and a study of their flora and 
 
THE CANNIBAL CARIBS 61 
 
 fauna, seem to confirm this theory; but (as some of 
 my own contributions toward the solution of this 
 problem have shown) if they were at one time in 
 union with the continents, it was long ages ago — 
 perhaps seons. For one thing, each island has its 
 own species of plant and animal, as well as others 
 common to all; there are great parrots in Dominica 
 that are not found in Guadeloupe, and again a species 
 of the same genus in Martinique not seen in Domi- 
 nica, only thirty miles away. 
 
 But if we allow ourselves to embark on the sea 
 of speculation we shall, I fear, sail about aim- 
 lessly without making solid land. So let us cling 
 to the main matters of discussion, and for the moment 
 follow after Columbus, as he approaches the first 
 land he sighted on this second voyage. 
 
 He named it Dominica, on account, the historians 
 say, of having first seen it on Sunday; and as " Sab- 
 bath Island " — gloriously beautiful, distinctive from 
 the common run of islands, even as Sunday stands 
 apart from the average week day — I recall my own 
 first glimpse of it, when, like Columbus, I saw it ris- 
 ing, a vision of loveliness, from the blue Caribbean 
 Sea. Such an island appeared to Columbus as he ap- 
 proached the Atlantic coast of Dominica, where the 
 seas ran too high for him to land, however; and such, 
 though smaller, was Marie Gal ante, and yet an- 
 other larger isle, which he named Guadalupe. In 
 a bay of the last-named he cast anchor and sent a 
 boat ashore to investigate. The coast was pic- 
 turesque, the forests were vast and fragrant with 
 sweet odors; but at the outset the Spaniards made a 
 
62 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 discovery that caused them to hesitate in their pro- 
 posed exploration of the island: no less than that the 
 inhabitants of this beautiful island were cannibals. 
 
 Columbus had been somewhat prepared to find 
 a fiercer and more warlike people than those he met 
 in Cuba and Haiti; in truth, it was to seek them 
 that he had on this voyage sailed in a more southerly 
 direction, having been informed that their homes 
 were here. But it does not appear that he had under- 
 stood they were anthropophagi — " eaters of human 
 flesh " ; and when his men reported that they had 
 found huts ashore with fires over which human limbs 
 and pieces of flesh were cooking, he was as aston- 
 ished as he was disgusted. I have always had some 
 doubts about the truth of this story, for the Spaniards 
 had their own reasons for giving the Caribs a bad 
 name. Somewhat later they gave the newcomers so 
 much trouble that they had to leave them entirely 
 alone, and the Spaniards made their alleged canni- 
 bal propensities a cloak for hunting them down 
 like beasts and selling them into slavery. But still, 
 they may have been cannibals; and of one thing we 
 are certain : that from them we have derived the term 
 " canniba, an aboriginal word meaning man-eater" 
 says an old writer. " And finding in canniba the 
 word can [Khan] , Columbus was of the opinion that 
 these pretended man-eaters were in reality merely 
 subjects of the Great Khan of Cathay, who for a long 
 time had been scanning these seas in search of slaves." 
 Thus we see how a preconceived theory may lead one 
 astray; for Columbus, to the end of his days, was al- 
 ways seeking in America for the Grand Khan he had 
 
THE CANNIBAL CARIBS 63 
 
 imagined ought to be there, assuming, of course, that 
 the lands he had discovered were the outlying pos- 
 sessions of that Oriental potentate. 
 
 Whatever may have been the conclusions of Co- 
 lumbus, this discovery furnished the wise men of 
 that period material for many learned discussions as 
 to the origin of those people, the Caribs, who called 
 themselves Callina, or Carina, which signified val- 
 iant and brave in war. It resulted, as I have said, 
 in the addition of a new word to our vocabulary; 
 and for this much we are debtors to the Caribs. 
 They were less advanced, perhaps, than the natives 
 of the larger islands in the primitive arts of peace, 
 but more inured to war, braver, and less inclined to 
 submit to Spanish rule. 
 
 Luckily for Columbus and his crews, all the men 
 were away when that Carib village was invaded on 
 the island of Guadeloupe, else he and his might 
 have met with a reception not altogether to their 
 liking. Some women appeared, however, and they 
 gave a very good account of themselves in the use 
 of the bow and arrow; notwithstanding which a few 
 were captured and taken to the ships. A party of 
 soldiers wandered off into the forest and were lost 
 for several days, but finally returned with glowing 
 accounts of the wonders they had seen. They could 
 see from the ships a great waterfall, descending like a 
 shower of feathery arrows from the clouds, and the 
 forest aisles were vocal with the songs of birds. 
 
 The natives of the Bahamas, Cuba, Haiti, Ja- 
 maica, and Puerto Rico were so different from these 
 warlike Caribs that even the obtuse, gold-seeking 
 
64 
 
 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 Spaniards noticed the distinction. The first-named 
 were called Arauacks, or Arawaks: mild-mannered, 
 
 [SSs 
 
 
 i 
 
 - T '.. -^^'^h^'V' ' invert 
 
 
 1 
 
 tlHE 
 
 <?4;' 
 
 W;%+ ' 
 
 1 
 
 lr~J'"kilfe,.,-- 
 
 
 
 ^^•^V-?^^ ' i/Sfl 
 
 1 
 
 
 "^ "^ T JlllliM j 
 
 The waterfall (Guadeloupe). 
 
 gentle, always disposed for peace; the Caribs were 
 their opposites in every respect, being, though " In- 
 
7KE ;Ay>"3^1 :_L2.3- gf 
 
 - -"_-_- . ■'-- ::A:A ^ " .- :~ei: 
 
 - i 'If-. : r. - ; ' - - r- -: ' _ ... ---■- "-. 
 
 _: ::":_- :-.r. . - ::. .: :: T -:: :::_::. :- " ~~: in ~: :-.: ".-.: 
 
 north eoast of South America, havin^ exi zTumated 
 
 - r- A -_ T _ — -t_ AziTi_^ At t_t 
 
 -"' —::.:::"- :-..:t:"-i -_t~ A -:: - -:. - t_t 
 
 i€ i "_-:: "::.:■:- : a: - : n- - : - __ : _ : 
 
 where A- :.;":"-- ~ -At A : . „ -- " .-: .. : "_-:: 
 
 Ai A~ rin-r :<: ~AA I :-:-. — A~ .:-" -ec- 
 
 : *1t A:.-r-r:A_ :-:_"":- v - :-.' " iA 
 
 - - : : - : -f- ~~~--- Z--- ----- - 
 
 v - - : ;.„_ £: _ 1 . - _ : _ " :_:::_ _.' - .- 
 
 rude, or from Trinidad, near the month of ike 
 OrA :•:■:. .: HA :a iA TLA: :AAT i- :_t ~ :- 
 
 - - ::- :;.r £ ^ 
 :: .:_ At ::"-: Aaaz n : "t~-i "A. A A- ----- 
 
 ■rill : :v.l ". in : aa- : -:--:at: _ A aa - Alaa-. 
 A_- - ■;_: : - A-At AA a aaa a a a.: . A: :a 
 --ai_a- : A--e 1- Aa :-:: - zt.zil i 
 
 - aa . : a~aa a tia:: - - - ^--_ 
 
 FT.g"-'»" r AaL AA- -~- - £ i "" AiAA Ii£r"_ 
 
 — Ai :'."-* V-. aaa. ~:a-l_ all aa r-n tl. 
 At '-iri~-i:-.n- Aat ::i _ -::t :. rery ia; i aaa 
 thenj "-- _: ~t Ai aa:: tataaa - ~ aa aaa_ 
 
 t-: . a~a a.t:..-tA-- —:: : n: ; : -- Ar. 
 
 - h ._ A: :■- AA: .:-- ~ "-■ 
 
 _ AtA AA A xtt - ''-'■' I: — ~- r *" - :: 
 
 :L T innotto, the Bum orellana]* which make- Aen 
 
66 
 
 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 of a red color all over. They also adorn the head 
 with a little covering of birds' feathers of different 
 colors, and bore their ears, lips, and nose for the in- 
 sertion of ornaments. About their necks they wear 
 necklaces made of the bones of their enemies, of 
 the teeth of alligators, agoutis, etc. On great occa- 
 sions they wear scarfs and girdles of feathers. . . . 
 Their most valued ornaments were gorgets of copper, 
 
 obtained from the Ara- 
 waks by plunder, cres- 
 cent-shaped and shining, 
 and these are most fre- 
 quently the only posses- 
 sions they leave their 
 children when they die. 
 They sometimes wear 
 cotton cloth as breech 
 clouts and aprons, and 
 can dye it in various col- 
 ors, chiefly red, and they 
 had hammocks when dis- 
 covered by Columbus. 
 They also made fine pot- 
 tery, which they baked 
 in kilns, and wove fine 
 baskets. They culti- 
 vated their lands in common. . . . They buried the 
 corpse of a chief, or the head of a family, in the 
 center of his own dwelling, and then abandoned 
 it forever. . . . Their heaven, or future home, 
 seems to have been a sort of Mahometan paradise 
 of houris and harems for the brave men; and they 
 
 A Carib girl. 
 (From a photograph.) 
 
THE CANNIBAL CABJBS 67 
 
 raised rustic altars, placing upon them fruits and 
 flowers. 
 
 " They believe that they have as many souls as 
 they can feel beatings of the arteries in their bodies 
 besides the principal one, which is in their heart, and 
 goes to heaven with its god, who carries it thither 
 to live with other gods; and they imagine that they 
 live there the same life as man lives here below. 
 For they do not think the soul to be so far immaterial 
 as to be invisible; but they affirm it to be subtile and 
 of thin substance, as a purified body; and they have 
 but the same word to signify the heart and the 
 soul. Other souls, not in the heart, reside in the 
 forest and by the seashore; the former they call 
 mabouyas, the latter oumelcou. They believe that 
 after death they may go to live in certain fortunate 
 islands, where they will have Arawak slaves to serve 
 them, swim unwearied in placid streams, and eat of 
 delicious fruits. ... It is related that a certain 
 young Carib, having been converted to Christianity 
 and taken to France, where he was shown many 
 strange things at which he showed no astonishment, 
 when he returned to his tribe threw off the clothes 
 of civilization and painted his body with roucou, be- 
 coming as wild and savage as before." * 
 
 " Of the thunder, which they call ' God's voice/ 
 they are extremely afraid, and they are prone to 
 leave their houses [or huts] after the death of an 
 
 * In this respect that young Carib was not singular, for the 
 same disposition is manifested by many of our North American 
 Indians as have been wholly or partly civilized, even some of those 
 who have graduated with honors at the Indian schools. 
 
68 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 inmate. As to division of labor, the men make the 
 lints and keep them in repair, procure fish and game, 
 and some of them also labor in the fields; but the 
 women attend to the domestic duties, paint their hus- 
 I lands with roucou, spin the cotton yarn, weave ham- 
 mocks, etc. They made fire by the friction of two 
 sticks, and also made and carried at night torches 
 of gum or candle wood." 
 
 This author mentions a peculiar fact, which I 
 also noted when I was living with the descendants 
 of the Caribs, and that is: " The Caribs have an 
 ancient and natural language, such as is peculiar to 
 them, and also a bastard speech, with foreign words, 
 chiefly Spanish, intermixed. Among themselves they 
 always use the natural, but in conversing with Chris- 
 tians the corrupt speech. The women also have a 
 different speech from the men." r I nis is accounted 
 for by a barbarous fact. When the ancient Caribs 
 came here from the south, they came as conquerors, 
 and killed every adult male Arawak who fell into 
 their hands. But they preserved the women and 
 children, and thus the Arawak speech, or a trace 
 of it, is yet to be found among the Caribs of to-day. 
 
 " Tt hath been observed," continues our author, 
 " that both men and women are naturally chaste, and 
 when those of other nations gaze curiously at them,' 
 and laugh at their nakedness, they are wont to say 
 to them, ' You are to look on us only between the 
 eyes.' ' Here we see an innocence as natural and as 
 free from guile as that of our first parents in Para- 
 dise. 
 
 I can testify to the truth of his statement that 
 
THE CANNIBAL ft) 
 
 " the Carib- ire great 1 batbing 
 
 re genei - .. -citable, and hone 
 
 of the following I can not 
 affirm: "It .- - a manifest truth, confirmed 
 
 daily experience in America, that the holy sacrara 
 
 of baptism having I.: ferret 
 
 il never beats nor 1 nits them afterwai 
 
 long as they J 
 
 the training of the young warrio. 
 
 Caril - riled to piei se food, 
 
 suspended from a tree, with an ar: 
 
 - i~. . . . They are said to ha 
 ned arrows [probably dipping them in 
 
 the curari poison, for the irat : rtnefa see 
 
 Wal _ . iana]. Like m 
 
 of Amc :icate the 
 
 and the hair on other par- 
 hatred of the Ara -ir here 
 
 tilled. Their eabi] : built of pole 
 
 circularly in the ground, drawn togel 
 and covered with palm . and in the r of 
 
 llage a building larger than the 
 
 for public assemblages. . . . The Caril 
 han : middle stature and 
 
 .smiling countenance, having broad shoulders and 
 hips, and most of them are in good plight Their 
 are not large and their teeth are per- 
 
 : ;tly white and close - ?t True it Is their compl 
 color naturally: their nose* are :: 
 and their fore ^.turally, but by arti- 
 
 . for the mothers crush them down r artificially 
 .... soon after birth, as also during the 
 
70 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 time they are nursing, imagining it a kind of 
 beauty and perfection. . . . They have large and 
 thick feet because they go barefoot, and withal so 
 hard that they defy woods, rocks, and thorns. They 
 believed in evil spirits, and sought to propitiate them 
 by presents of game, fruits, etc." 
 
 All this I have quoted from the author men- 
 tioned, because his observations were made when 
 the Caribs were living more nearly in a state of 
 nature than at the present time. In British Guiana, 
 according to an explorer who made of them a special 
 study, the Caribs yet live in a state of savagery 
 similar to that of the primitive dwellers in the Lesser 
 Antilles, and still practice the same customs. 
 
 If this book were merely a narrative of my ad- 
 ventures, I should like to linger by the way and tell 
 of my own experiences among the Caribs of the pres- 
 ent day; but as we are bent upon historical investiga- 
 tions I can hardly allow myself that privilege. I was 
 young then, and vigorous, seeking adventure not only 
 for its own sake, but for the information it might cas- 
 ually bring to me; and you may be sure that the pleas- 
 ures of that wild life were enhanced by the conscious- 
 ness that I was garnering valuable historical and eth- 
 nological material. For example, soon after I had 
 swung my hammock in the little straw-thatched hut, 
 on the windward coast of Dominica, I was served with 
 " farine " made from the manioc and roasted ears of 
 the maize, exactly as the first Spaniards in these 
 islands were served — in the real aboriginal fashion. 
 My Indian guide, Meeyong, whose ancestors were 
 pure Caribs, and may have been among those who 
 
THE CANNIBAL CARIBS 
 
 71 
 
 gazed with wondering eyes upon the great, white- 
 sailed caracks of the Spaniards as they sailed slowly 
 by in 149 3, took me to interview the oldest woman 
 of the tribe, almost the sole snrvivor of those who 
 
 A Carib cookhouse (Dominica). 
 
 spoke the original tongue, and also went with me into 
 the woods. We climbed the forest-covered mountains 
 in search of the great ciceroo, or broad-winged 
 parrot, and at night the guide deftly constructed a 
 palm-leaf ajoupa, as he had been taught by his 
 
72 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 father and grandfather, and wove Carib baskets 
 of reeds, so well made that they would hold water. 
 lie showed me the haunts of the birds, the lizards, 
 and the fat grubs of the palm beetle, which last he 
 ]■< »;isted and ate with great relish, and wove a maia- 
 pie, or long, conical basket, in which the grated manioc 
 was pressed, the poisonous juice extracted, and the 
 meal made ready for baking over a fire into palatable 
 cakes.* The game we shot he boucanned over a 
 smoking flame of gum wood, after the manner of the 
 ancient Caribs — which process gave that distinctive 
 name to the far-famed buccaneers for boucaniers). 
 
 * The Carib, by the way, was the inventor of the cassareep, 
 which forms the basis of the famous West Indian pepper pot, that 
 concoction sought by all gourmets in the tropics. The juice of the 
 cassava is evaporated until the poisonous quality is driven out, 
 when it becomes an antiseptic capable of preserving meats of 
 every kind for a long period. This is placed in a big jar or 
 earthen pot, and into it are thrown odds and ends of meat from 
 time to time, which the juice of the manioc preserves, and to which 
 it imparts a peculiar and agreeable flavor. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 FIRST FOBTS A5D SETTLEMENTS 
 
 Befoee we follow Columbus further on hi- 
 ond voyage, let us complete our sketch of these 
 Caribs. whc b ery was the most important of 
 
 his contributions to the fund of knowledge at that 
 time. They are also the only tribe or body of In- 
 dians in the West Indies whose - gxisf 
 to-day. and are confined to but two islands of the 
 archipelago in which, at the time of their disc* 
 they roamed at large. These islands are Dominica, 
 in 15 z north latitude, and Saint Vincent, two de- 
 grees farther south, which together contain per- 
 haps five hundred Indians, many of whom ar- - 
 intimately mixed with the negp - that their dis- 
 tinguishing racial features are nearly obliterat 
 They dwell on the windward, or east roast, of 
 each island, in a territory set apart, where they 
 cultivate their lands in common, subsisting mainly 
 upon the fruits of their agricultural labors and 
 
 products, eked out by the scant results of the 
 chase, such as small birds, agoutis, and iguanas. 
 Their huts are almost as primitive in construction 
 
 hey were four hundred years ago. being built of 
 palm logs and thatched with leaves from the same 
 
74 
 
 THE STORIED WEST INblHS 
 
 These are the last vestiges of the [ndians brought 
 to the light of civilization by Columbus. But even 
 were there no living subjects for us to view, we 
 
 could still adduce 
 evidence that they 
 once existed here 
 from the relics they 
 bave left behind. 
 The most impor- 
 tant of these are 
 some rude rock 
 carvings, or petro- 
 glyphs, which I 
 have seen in vari- 
 ous islands, such as 
 Saint John (one of 
 the Virgin group), 
 Saint Vincent, and 
 Guadeloupe. The 
 characters do not 
 rise to the dig- 
 nity of hieroglyph- 
 ics or ideographs, 
 and bave no coher- 
 ence or continuity, 
 like the pictographs 
 of the A/tecs and other Mexican [ndians, but are 
 merely the chance work of some barbaric artist. T 
 may remark, in passing, that in the West Indies there 
 are no ruins of greal structures the work of aborigines, 
 such as are seen in Mexico, and no remains to indicate 
 that the [ndians bere were I'm- advanced in culture. 
 
 Old [ndians of Dominica. 
 
PTB8T PORTS AND SETTLED 75 
 
 Jr. addition to the g mplement 
 
 war and agrieultur< found throughout 
 
 Jan' • Jonging m* 
 
 the 
 neolithic, and eon-, rniiunar and en 
 
 .- -. ched 
 
 ■ ■ . <r and arrow hea 
 
 jadeite and most beautifully polished. 
 
 been found in man; 
 and on the rhere the; 
 
 their original jy 
 markable eolleeti imp] or. er found 
 
 that di St ' at, about 
 
 Some Cj ad buried thorn hundred 
 
 ago, ident the brought 
 
 light — two hundred imp] or ar, Jr. this 
 
 aboriginal armor , 
 
 a giant of them 
 
 ing more than six pounds each and me* 
 inch acr< : 
 
 arrior- of those day earned 
 
 and cross* m Sea in their 
 
 Xhai ! i • - 1 s : 
 
 Columbus from Guadalupe no terry through 
 
 the emerald chain of the Caribl 
 parting from a sheltered harboi 
 
 ond-ear moun- 
 
 tain, rit dropping anchor in a 
 
 tranded and tth the perfi afted 
 
 from virfi 
 
76 
 
 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 bays mirrored the caravels and caracks as they stole 
 past gloomy headlands; swallow-shaped flying fishes 
 skimmed the waves, and fell, perchance, into the boats 
 drifting astern the larger vessels; flocks of parrots 
 new screaming overhead, sweet-voiced songsters war- 
 bled in the thickets near the beaches, and those 
 airy sprites, the humming birds, glanced athwart the 
 
 A Carib canoe. 
 
 sky. Ah! those were Edenic islands that the Span- 
 iards brought to view one after another, fit abodes 
 for man in his best estate; yet they were then given 
 over to fierce Carib prowlers, soon to be supplanted 
 by yet more fiendish Spaniards, whose atrocities were 
 to convert these paradisaical retreats into a wilder- 
 ness of woe. 
 
 At this time, however, the evil spirits which soon 
 after desolated the islands had not been let loose, 
 
first "7.7- asb -77777: 7 7- 77 
 
 It was with feeling of mingled thankfulness and 
 
 erenee that Columbus visited and named the 
 islan - as they came within the raiii : -ion. and 
 
 lay those names still remain. : st 1 them being 
 S] anish. Thus Gnadalnpe (or Guadeloupe, as the 
 French, its present : wn bis, /_ it ~as named after 
 a famous moi stery in Sj ain: Montserrat, after an- 
 other; Saint Christopher- was - named, it is said, 
 because the peak : i ts rntral mountain (now kn 
 
 Mount Misery reminded the Admiral of the 
 _ jd giant win the infan* Jesus hi Ins shoul- 
 ders; Antigua was the name of a dty jf Anda- 
 lusia: Santa Cruz, the Holv ss; that groui A 
 islands north of it he called the Virgins, after 
 Saint Ursula and her eleven thousand followers 
 B int Thomas and Saint John a - ***& 
 nal appellations as Bstowed dumbos; finally, 
 the island tying - the west z r hem. known to the 
 natives as Borinquen. he named San Juan de Pnert 
 Rk r & int John of the Rich Port, because the har- 
 boi in which he stopped to water hk 
 rich in natural beauties and pi > tive ~ ealth. This 
 harbor is the one now known as Asruadilla. or the 
 
 tering Place, in honor of thai rent, and lie- at 
 the west end of the island: from it Commons sailed 
 directly across the channel to Hispaniola. discovered 
 
 on the previous age, and where he had left the 
 
 smaL garrison at I-a Xavidad. 
 
 S HTmiTicr along the north mast f Hispaniola 
 hurrie<I>. assing - essaVely the Bay of Arr 
 the SOvei Llonntain. and Monte Crista the fleet at 
 last arrived opposite tie site :z L : _ avidad I — as 
 
78 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 night, but Columbus sent a boat ashore, for he was 
 apprehensive of some evil tidings. In truth he had 
 good cause to be, for the day before some of his 
 men in a small boat had found the decaying re- 
 mains of two men, apparently Europeans, in a grassy 
 bay near Monte Cristi. On the morrow, indeed, his 
 worst fears were more than realized, for it was then 
 learned that the garrison had been massacred and the 
 fort razed to the ground. This was the gloomy ending 
 to that voyage which hitherto had been so bright with 
 signs of promise — an ending, indeed, which presaged 
 yet greater disappointments in the terrible disasters 
 which swiftly followed. Search was made for Ca- 
 cique Guacanagari, but it was only after long wait- 
 ing that he finally appeared: wounded, ill, depressed, 
 yet still the avowed friend of the Spaniards. We 
 shall pass over, for the moment, the events that led 
 to the death of this unhappy chieftain, the dispersion 
 and eventual extinction of his people, and hasten on 
 to the founding of Isabella, early in December, 
 1493. 
 
 Columbus was anxious to reimburse his sover- 
 eigns for their great outlay, and allowed himself 
 to be carried away by the prospect of quickly ac- 
 quiring the necessary means through the exploita- 
 tion of the mines. Having ever in mind the con- 
 tiguity of the first city to the Cibao, or gold region, 
 he scanned the coast to the east of Monte Cristi for 
 an advantageous site, and when he discovered a deep 
 basin the vessels were brought inside the line of 
 foaming coral reefs upon which the open sea was 
 breaking, and there found shelter. "Within this bay 
 
80 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 a river discharged its waters, and above the sand 
 beach where it met the sea rose a steep bluff, form- 
 ing a natural breastwork, from the summit of which 
 stretched level land to a background of hills. East 
 of the bluff is a beach of golden sand, two hundred 
 and seventy-five feet in length, with another coral 
 headland beyond it and a lagoon inland, circular in 
 shape and bordered with logwood and mangroves. 
 It was upon this beach that the weary cavaliers and 
 sailors, the soldiers and future citizens of the colony 
 to be established, were finally disembarked, after 
 their long voyage and suspense. Here, also, the 
 caravels and caracks discharged their freight — the 
 horses, cattle, sheep, munitions of war, provisions, 
 plants for cultivation, and articles for barter. 
 
 But to-day, where these scenes transpired there is 
 naught but solitude, for this new city, the first to be 
 founded by Europeans in the New World, was not 
 long occupied. The situation was not salubrious, the 
 surrounding country was unfit for easy cultivation, 
 and the new settlers died in great numbers; yet with- 
 in two months from the day of landing here a church 
 was dedicated, the ruins of which, fifty years ago, 
 showed it to have been at least one hundred and fifty 
 feet in length ; a residence had been built for Colum- 
 bus, also a fortress with a circular tower, and a mint, 
 or " king's house," for the smelting and storing of 
 the gold to be obtained in the hills. 
 
 When I visited this spot in 1891 I came from 
 the direction of Puerto Plata, sixty miles away, in a 
 little coasting vessel, called a goleta, the master of 
 which, a black man, was in search of logwood and 
 
FIRST FORTS AND SETTLEMENTS 
 
 81 
 
 mahogany. After half a day spent on the deck of the 
 goleta. we sighted the foaming breakers on the reefs 
 off Isabella, and at last penetrated the narrow chan- 
 nel between the coral ledges and gained the month of 
 the Bajabonito. the dreariest river I had ever seen. 
 Half a mile from the 
 river month we ar- 
 rived opposite a small 
 dwelling house, which 
 the generous owner, 
 whom I had met at 
 Puerto Plata, had 
 placed at my disposal. 
 In the morning, 
 when the sun shone 
 upon the forest-cov- 
 ered hillside, and the 
 mocking birds saluted 
 me with floods of mel- 
 ody, I quite forgot the 
 fleas and mosquitoes 
 that had assailed me 
 during the night, the 
 centipedes and scor- 
 pions, of which I had 
 been warned . and 
 thrilled with the 
 thought that the event so long anticipated was near 
 at hand: when I should gaze upon the ruins of the 
 first city erected in America ! Abandoned more than 
 four centuries ago, Isabella had lain neglected, de- 
 serted, all this time, slowly going to ruin, and even 
 
 Armor of Columbus. 
 
82 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 its site forgotten by civilized man, until I sought it 
 out and brought it to the notice of my countrymen. 
 Only the explorer can understand the satisfaction 
 with which I neared the site of that deserted city. 
 The air was cool and sweet with the scents of a thou- 
 sand flowers, the trees were filled with chattering 
 parrots, cooing wood doves, and glancing, gemlike 
 humming birds. 
 
 Thus welcomed, and thus attuned with nature's 
 harmonies, I approached the site of ancient Isabella. 
 I found it covered with a rank growth of cactus, 
 logwood, and tropical plants, woven together so closely 
 by long, ropelike lianes, and beset with tangled creep- 
 ers, that we could hardly penetrate this vegetal bar- 
 rier, and my guide had to hew a path with his cutlass 
 or machete. 
 
 In short, of the city of Isabella, which at one 
 time contained numerous houses built of masonry, 
 no vestige remained except shapeless heaps, or mon- 
 tones, of rocks, stones, and tiles. I located all the 
 principal structures, and found some hewn rocks 
 which at one time composed the walls. I also picked 
 up many fragments of crucibles that at one time may 
 have held gold from the Cibao region and shards of 
 tiles that once covered the roofs of important build- 
 ings. I lived here a week, visiting the ruins by day- 
 light and moonlight, essaying the latter experience 
 in hope that I might meet, perchance, some of those 
 gallant cavaliers whose unhappy fate it was to perish 
 here, and who were said still to haunt this gloomy 
 spot. 
 
CHAPTEE VIII 
 
 THE LAST CACIQUES 
 
 Oxe of tlie finest views offered to the eyes of man 
 is that outspread below the Santo Cerro, or Holy 
 Hill, of Santo Domingo. The Santo Cerro is about 
 six hundred feet in height, and rises sheer above the 
 vast central plain which stretches nearly across the 
 island from east to west, and between the two moun- 
 tain ranges known as the Cerro de Monte Cristi and 
 the Cordilleras de Cibao. This fertile and extensive 
 plain, beautiful beyond compare, covered with tropi- 
 cal forests and traversed by rivers, was first seen by 
 Columbus in 1494, and called by him the Vega Real, 
 or Royal Plain. Viewing it from the Holy Hill, with 
 its visible charms, which so moved Columbus that he 
 declared it to surpass all other spots he had ever 
 seen, my heart swelled with emotions of gratitude 
 to the Great Creator, who has breathed into all nature 
 the divine element of beauty. Yet I could not but be 
 saddened when I recalled the terrible tragedies that 
 had been enacted here: the murdering of individ- 
 uals, the massacring of multitudes, and the acts that 
 led to the final extinction of those innocent aborigines 
 who once made their homes beneath the royal palms, 
 and lived here happily until the Spaniard came. 
 
 Although it is thought that the great battle of the 
 
 83 
 
84: 
 
 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 Yega took place near the present town of San- 
 tiago de los Caballeros, yet it is averred that Colum- 
 
 The church of Santo Cerro. 
 
 bus himself watched and guided its progress from 
 the crest of this same Santo Cerro; and a very aged 
 tree, pointed out as that beneath which he stood, is 
 called to-day the nispero de Colon, or the medlar 
 tree of Columbus. A church of quaint construction 
 crowns the hill, along its narrow ridge is a double 
 line of palm-thatched huts, between which runs a 
 street, and in this miserable hamlet reside a few col- 
 ored people, who depend upon the church for a living; 
 for the Cerro is a sacred spot, and the inhabitants of 
 the Yega all come here once a year at least, and those 
 resident near the hill every Saturday, to pay their 
 devotions and perform their vows. 
 
 The great battle of the Yega, by which the Indi- 
 ans were for a time subdued, took place in the spring 
 of 1495, and soon after Columbus began the construe- 
 
THE LAST CACIQUES 
 
 85 
 
 tion of a series of forts reaching from the city of Isa- 
 bella to the heart of the Koyal Plain. The most im- 
 portant of these strongholds was that built near the 
 foot of the Cerro, and called Concepcion de la Yega. 
 This was the fifth place of defence built by Columbus 
 in the New World, the first having been La Navidad, 
 the second Isabella, the third Santo Tomas, and the 
 fourth Jacagua, near the present town of Santiago 
 de los Caballeros. Concepcion de la Yega was built 
 of brick, with walls from ten to sixteen feet in thick- 
 ness, having semicircular bastions at their corners, 
 
 Fort Concepcion de la Vega. 
 
 and inclosed a plaza about two hundred feet square. 
 I can give the material and dimensions of this an- 
 cient structure with some degree of confidence, as 
 I carried on excavations around its walls and made 
 
86 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 extensive explorations all over the Vega. Around 
 the fort erected here grew up a large town, filled 
 with gold and silver smiths, and promising to become 
 a place of influence ; but seventy years later, one April 
 morning, fort and town were totally destroyed by a 
 great earthquake, and as trade and commerce had 
 long since left the region the settlement was never 
 renewed. Most of the surviving inhabitants moved 
 to the town of Vega, a few miles distant, and Con- 
 cepcion exists to-day in ruin and solitude. It had a 
 church and a convent or monastery, and to be in- 
 terred in this latter Columbus willed that his remains 
 should be taken from Spain to Santo Domingo. 
 
 The convent has disappeared, and of the church 
 only the bell tower remains, in a ruinous condi- 
 tion. Respecting this bell tower I have a fanci- 
 ful story, and it is this: To the town of Concepcion 
 was brought a bell that King Ferdinand of Spain 
 had sent as a present to the town of Isabella; when 
 the latter was abandoned, it was hung in the belfry 
 at Concepcion, and called the people to their de- 
 votions. After the earthquake the bell disappeared, 
 for the belfry was ruined. It was finally forgotten; 
 but about a hundred years ago, as a hunter was 
 ranging through the woods about the tower, he saw 
 a strange object clasped in the branches of a wild 
 fig tree. The " fig " of the island is a parasite, grow- 
 ing upon other trees, and sometimes completely in- 
 wrapping them in ligneous folds. One of these figs 
 had sent its inquisitive feelers in among the bricks 
 and stones of the ruined tower, and in its explorations 
 had come across the old bell, which had been hidden 
 
THE LAST CACIQUES 
 
 87 
 
 for centuries. No one knows how long it took the 
 growing tree to lift the bell from its bed and hold it 
 suspended in midair; but that was the object the 
 hunter saw as he looked aloft! He reported his dis- 
 covery to others, and they cut down the tree, rescued 
 
 Bell tower of the church. 
 
 the bell from its imprisonment, and ever since have 
 regarded it with peculiar veneration. 
 
 Other ancient relics which I obtained at and near 
 Concepcion were a small lombard, exploded when it 
 was fired at the Indians, an iron cross, and one of 
 
88 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 the veritable cascabels, or hawk bells, taken to the 
 island for barter with the Indians. The cascabel 
 figures prominently in the history of the island, for 
 it may be recalled that after the subjugation of Santo 
 Domingo, Columbus ordered every man, woman, and 
 child to bring to him at Isabella at least a hawk bell 
 full of native gold. It was in vain that the cacique 
 of the region plead their inability to do this, and 
 offered instead to sow with maize the entire plain, 
 from sea to sea, for the support of the Span- 
 iards. Columbus was inexorable. Cold was what he 
 and his myrmidons had come for; gold they must 
 have, to send to their grasping king and queen, who, 
 as he explained to the Indians, were possessed of an 
 appetite which could only be appeased by great quan- 
 tities of the precious metal. 
 
 With the building of Fort Concepcion in 141)5 
 the last link was forged in the chain by which Colum- 
 bus held the humbled Indians bound and subject to 
 his will. Whether he really intended it or not, he 
 had prepared the way for their total extinction as a 
 people, after inflicting upon them untold miseries. 
 The crime of Columbus we might term this oppres- 
 sion of a subject people and their final extermina- 
 tion, although his policy was subsequently sanctioned 
 by his sovereign, Ferdinand, king of Spain. 
 
 When Columbus arrived at Ilispaniola the entire 
 island was under the dominion of five great chiefs, 
 or caciques. The first he met, as we have seen, 
 was that humane and generous man, Guacanagari, 
 who not only rescued him and his people from the 
 wreck of the flagship, but royally entertained them 
 
THE LAST CACIQUES 89 
 
 as long as they chose to remain his guests. Tor the 
 massacre of La Navidad garrison he was not respon- 
 sible, as that was the act of Caonabo, the fierce Carib 
 chieftain of the mountains; but he was held respon- 
 sible by many Spaniards, as it occurred on his terri- 
 tory, which extended from Mole San Nicolas to the 
 river Yaqui. 
 
 When Columbus returned to La Navidad, on his 
 second voyage, lie brought with him some women of 
 Puerto Rico whom he had rescued from the Oaribs 
 of Guadalupe. Guacanagari saw and conversed with 
 them, and became enamored of one, whom the 
 Spaniards called Catalina. Whatever the purport of 
 their conversations, it came about that the following 
 night Catalina and her female friends all leaped 
 overboard and swam ashore, as the ships lay in the 
 bay. Some of them were taken captive as they 
 reached the shore, but Catalina and two other- es- 
 caped to the woods. As Guacanagari did not again 
 appear to the Spaniards, and could not be found in 
 his village, it was concluded that he had fled with 
 his charmer to the mountains. lie had, in truth, 
 good r-ause to beware of the Spaniard-, for some of 
 them were for hanging him up at once, a-: the insti- 
 gator of the massacre. lie again made hi- appear- 
 ance soon after the founding of Isabella, and was 
 compelled by Columbus to give proof of his friend- 
 ship by assisting at a ma—a^-re of the Indians in the 
 Vega. After that, overwhelmed by the taunts and 
 reproaches of his countrymen, and driven from his 
 possessions by the Spaniards, he retired to the interior 
 mountains, where he miserably perished, 
 
90 
 
 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 That was the end of gallant Guacanagari, one 
 who had befriended the Spaniards from the very 
 first, and as reward was hounded to his death. The 
 next cacique the Spaniards met was Guarionex, 
 whose territory extended from the Yaqui, contiguous 
 
 Bringing gold to Columbus. 
 
 to that of Guacanagari, eastward to the Bay of Sa- 
 mana, including the great and fertile Yega. It was 
 mainly through his instigation that the Indians were 
 prevailed upon to rise against the Spaniards when they 
 received their first defeat; it was he who made the 
 offer to sow the Vega with maize, in lieu of rendering 
 tribute in gold ; and from his tribe came the five hun- 
 
THE LAST CACIQUES 91 
 
 dred Indians sent home to Spain as slaves by Colum- 
 bus. The third cacique was Caonabo, the Carib, who 
 pounced upon the fort of Santo Tomas from the 
 1 j cart of his caciquedom, which comprised the moun- 
 tainous Cibao, so rich in golden treasure. His was 
 a vast province, and his capital was over the moun- 
 tains, on their southern slopes. 
 
 The easternmost province was known as Higuey, 
 and was ruled by a cacique named Gotubanama, who 
 was, like all the others, murdered in due time. The 
 fifth and last province was Xaragua, which comprised 
 the southwestern part of the island, including much 
 of what is to-day known as Haiti along its southern 
 coast, and was governed by Bohechio, brother-in-law 
 of Caonabo. 
 
 One of the most romantic adventures even of 
 that age of romance took place in this island soon 
 after the first collision between the Spaniards and 
 the Indians. Among the soldiers who came out 
 with Columbus was a young man of bravery and 
 skill, named Alonso de Ojeda. He is particularly 
 mentioned as possessing great courage, and excelling 
 the average of those dauntless spirits who comprised 
 the conquistador es of the New World. He was sent 
 to take command of Fort Santo Tomas, in the Cibao, 
 or gold region, and while he was there the place was 
 invested by Caonabo. Having massacred the gar- 
 rison of La Navidad, and having infused some of his 
 daring spirit into the Indians under his control, 
 Caonabo ventured to attack this isolated fort in the 
 mountains. He reduced Ojeda to such extremes that, 
 had not a rescuing force come to his assistance from 
 
92 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 Isabella, he might have succumbed to the Indians, 
 who surrounded the fort in great numbers. Driven 
 off by superior arms, Caonabo retired to his mountain 
 fastnesses, but soon returned with augmented force, 
 only to be again defeated. Although he had hith- 
 erto been invincible among the islanders, he could 
 not withstand the shock of firearms and the terrible 
 ravages of the bloodhounds. 
 
 After the second repulse, Ojeda conceived a plan 
 to capture Caonabo which was not less daring than 
 ingenious. With a few chosen companions he made 
 the perilous journey over the mountains (until then 
 unknown to the Spaniards), and sought out the Carib 
 cacique in his capital town of Maguana, where he 
 found him surrounded by his warriors. By the exer- 
 cise of his powers of craft and duplicity, Ojeda per- 
 suaded the cacique to accompany him alone into the 
 forest, where he showed him a pair of handcuffs, 
 which he told him were bracelets, sent him as a pres- 
 ent by the King of Spain himself in recognition of his 
 bravery and skill as a warrior. As these manacles 
 were bright and shining, and unlike anything the 
 simple Indian had ever seen before, he was easily 
 persuaded that they were Turey, or a gift from 
 Heaven, and induced to slip them on his wrists, ^o 
 sooner had he done so, however, than Ojeda (who 
 was exceedingly strong and muscular, though small 
 in stature) reached over from his saddle, and by ex- 
 erting all his strength swung the astonished warrior 
 up behind him. The moment this was done his 
 companions flanked the pair on horseback, dashed 
 the spurs into their steeds, and darted off through 
 
THE LAST CACIQUI 93 
 
 the forest, before the Indiana could seize their amis 
 and hinder them. Manacled as he was, and held at 
 the point of the sword, Caonabo was obliged to sub- 
 mit, and a- the upshot of this most daring adventure 
 he was safely taken to J-ahella. after days of wander- 
 ing in the pathless forest, and delivered a prisoner 
 to Columbus. It is -aid that he held no animosity 
 toward Ojeda for depriving him of his liberty, but, 
 on the contrary, had for him the highest 
 for whenever he appeared in his cell he would al" - 
 ri-e and salute hirn. whereas when Columbus made 
 hi- appearance he treated him with indifference. 
 He explained this by saying that Ojeda was a brave 
 man or he could not have taken hirn captive: while 
 he had no proof that Columbus was anything more 
 than a coward, and «:-ared nothing at all for his rank. 
 
 Unfortunate Caonabo, the fir-t of f iciqueg 
 
 U be leprived of liberty, was placed aboard a ship 
 
 about to sail for Spain and died on the _ 
 
 II 'is captor, tl inimitable Ojeda. after many otl 
 adventures, in which his rashness and valor w 
 always - s, finally died, and was buried 
 
 within the doorway of the Franciscan monastery in 
 the city of Santo Domingo, in a^r-ordan^e with his 
 reque-t. that all who entered there should walk over 
 
 grave. 
 
 In the ship that r-arried Caonabo to Spain Colum- 
 bus also took passag and left I-abella in charge of 
 his brothers. Don Diego and Don Bartholomew, 
 latter was a man of force and courage, in direct con- 
 tra- 1 : to Doi _ . and a* tl same time 
 more humane than Christopher. He had been sent 
 
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96 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 cacique. A mutual attachment sprang up between 
 them, and he for a while lived with her and her 
 people quite contentedly. After they had learned 
 a little of each other's language and could converse, 
 she told him of rich deposits of gold on the banks 
 of a river in her territory, and the soldier obtained 
 such fine nuggets there that he concluded he might 
 now return to Isabella and make his peace with 
 the Adelantado. Don Bartholomew not only par- 
 doned him, but when heard the story sent a detach- 
 ment of soldiers to investigate. This was in the year 
 1496. The Spaniards had now been three years at 
 Isabella, and as it had proved a barren settlement 
 they abandoned it and founded another city on the 
 south coast near the new mines, which was called 
 Santo Domingo. 
 
 That was more than four hundred years ago, and 
 (as I have narrated in a previous chapter) its struc- 
 tures have entirely disappeared. Yet here at one 
 time gathered such men famous in history as Christo- 
 pher, Diego, and Bartholomew Columbus; here lived 
 awhile some of Spain's most gallant cavaliers. Tra- 
 ditions are rife about the spot, and it is said by those 
 who have hunted in the surrounding forest that Isa- 
 bella is haunted by the shades of the disappointed 
 hidalgos, who wander mournfully through the gloom, 
 and who still retain their native courtesy, for when 
 met and accosted they return the salute with a sweep- 
 ing bow, but always take off their heads with their 
 hats! 
 
CHAFFEE 
 
 O) this beautiful bland in tate the 
 
 io proviiu , - 
 
 able for the rrm mountain-, the fruitful- 
 
 ilk, and 
 : jJ plain-, with abuil 
 trough them, 'I I i . 
 
 animal found in it, i 
 beast; no lion, nor v i 
 
 and fortunate 
 
 -. • . 
 
 trat bipod- — brutes in 
 
 aid to 
 
 lid all be could foi 
 .' - He was 1 
 
 - 
 
 aife of it. <V 
 I 
 
 that o: 
 
98 THE STORIED WEST INDIMS 
 
 which from its isolation had not boon troubled 
 by the strangers. Conceiving it to be his duly to 
 visit and subjugate these Endians, Don Bartholomew 
 set out, in the summer of L496, with an imposing 
 array of soldiers, for the province of Xaragua. He 
 proceeded along the south coast, crossing rapid 
 rivers and passing through a fertile and beautiful 
 country, until at Inst he reached the borders of 
 Xaragua, where the cacique, who bad learned of his 
 coming, met him with his Indian army drawn up in 
 battle array. Perceiving, however, the futility of 
 opposing such a force as the A-delantado had with 
 him, Bohechio, who had been greatly impressed by 
 the prowess of the Spaniards, at once abandoned 
 whatever hostile intentions he may have had, and 
 advanced frankly to proffer the hand of friendship. 
 
 Mis advances were met with equal frankness by 
 Don Bartholomew, who was a man well fitted for 
 intercourse with these primitive people, and together 
 they marched- the steel-clad soldiers of the invading 
 army and the naked Indians armed with lances, 
 bows, and arrows — to the site of Bohechio's capital. 
 It was situated at the head of an inlet now known 
 as the Bay of Neiba, not far from the mouth of 
 Che river Yaqni (of the south), on the upper waters 
 of which lay the late Caonabo's town of Maguana. 
 The cacique sent, swift messengers ahead to warn his 
 sister of the coming arrival of guests, and when the 
 combined armies reached the place a feast was found 
 already spread, and the strangers were 1 invited to a 
 banquet of all the products of the land. Anacaona, 
 Bohechio's sister, lk received the Adelantado and his 
 
DESTRUCTION OF THE INDIANS 
 
 99 
 
 followers with that natural grace and courtesy for 
 which she was so celebrated, manifesting no hostility 
 toward them on account of the fate her husband 
 [Caonabo] had experienced at their hands. . . . The 
 
 Preparing the feast. (From an old print.) 
 
 Adelantado and his officers were conducted to the 
 house of Bohechio, where a banquet was served of 
 utias and a great variety of sea and river fish, with 
 roots and fruits of excellent quality. Here first the 
 Spaniards conquered their repugnance to the iguana, 
 the favorite delicacy of the Indians, but which the 
 former had regarded with disgust as a species of ser- 
 pent." 
 
 T myself can testify to the delicate flavor of the 
 iguana flesh, having eaten it often when encamped 
 with the Caribs of Dominica; and will remark, 
 
 £,»©. 
 
100 THE STORIED WEST IN DI MS 
 
 in passing, that it is still a favorite dish with the 
 few remaining descendants of the West Indian 
 aborigines. Bnt we will not allow anything to divert 
 ns from that banquet and the performances that fol- 
 lowed. Don Bartholomew was entertained most 
 royally during two days, and when he departed it 
 was with the assurance Hint Cacique Bohechio would 
 render him tribute — not of gold, for his territory did 
 not vicld it, bnt of cotton. 
 
 From this scene of sylvan delights the Adelantado 
 was suddenly called away, to suppress an insurrection 
 in the Vega and to superintend affairs at the new set- 
 tlement of San Cristoval, which, from the abundance 
 of gold found there, was often called the Golden 
 Tower. But he looked back with pleasure to the 
 delights of that reception by Bohechio and his beau- 
 tiful sister Anacaona, and when the time arrived to 
 go for the promised tribute he set forth joyfully. 
 He found that the cacique had been true to his 
 wo I'd, and had gathered a whole hutful of cotton, 
 besides vast quantities of cassava bread, of which 
 the Spaniards stood in much need. There then en- 
 sued a repetition of the banquets and entertainments, 
 the mock battles and tourneys, with which the simple 
 natives had regaled him on his previous visit. 
 After the tribute was collected, Don Bartholomew 
 sent for one of the caravels he had built at Isabella, 
 and gave the cacique and his sister a sail over the 
 tranquil surface of the bay. They had never seen 
 anything resembling this great canoa, with its big 
 white sails, like the wings of a gigantic bird, and 
 Princess Anacaona fell into transports of delight. 
 
DESTRUCTION OF THE INDIANS 101 
 
 Perhaps I have been remiss in neglecting to in- 
 troduce, or at least more particularly mention, this 
 beautiful caciquess, Anacaona, the Golden Flower 
 of Xaragua.* She was the wife of Carib Caonabo, 
 chief of the Golden House, who had been torn 
 from his mountain capital by Alonso de Ojeda 
 and transported to Spain. She was then, to all 
 intents, a widow when Don Bartholomew met her, 
 and as the Adelantado was himself a bachelor — 
 well, it is said that he fell in love with this flower- 
 like princess and was captivated by her grace and 
 beauty. Believing herself to be what she really was 
 at that time, the relict of Caonabo, she might have 
 felt some resentment toward those who had encom- 
 passed his death; but, on the contrary, she showed 
 great pleasure in the society of noble Don Bar- 
 tholomew Columbus. When, as they approached 
 the caravel, a cannon was fired by way of salute, 
 she was so frightened that she fell into his arms, 
 and he had to reassure her with kind words and 
 laughter before she would venture on board that 
 great canoe which had so excited her admiration. 
 The cruise that ensued was the most wonderful 
 adventure the simple princess had ever experienced, 
 and as the great sails filled with a gentle breeze, 
 and the band played martial airs, she and her 
 royal brother knelt at Don Bartholomew's feet, 
 
 * Her name was derived from ana, a flower, and caona, gold— 
 Anacaona, the Golden Flower. Similarly, her husband's, from 
 caona, gold, and bo, chief, great— Caonabo, the Golden Lord. Also, 
 Bohechio, from bo, great; hec, chief; and Mo, country— Cacique 
 of a great country. 
 
102 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 gazing into one another's face with astonishment and 
 delight. 
 
 After the caravel was freighted with the tribute 
 of cotton, and the Adelantado lingered behind to 
 say good-by, there were tears in the eyes of the inno- 
 cent princess, and she made him promise to return 
 soon to the delightsome Xaragua. They interchanged 
 presents, and parted with feelings of mutual esteem. 
 Among other things that Anacaona gave Don Bar- 
 tholomew were " fourteen chairs of ebony, beautifully 
 wrought, and more than sixty earthen vessels of dif- 
 ferent sorts for the use of his kitchen and table, all of 
 which were ornamented with figures of various kinds, 
 
 Indian implements, Hispaniola. 
 
 fantastic forms, and accurate representations of living 
 animals." It is not told what the Adelantado did 
 with those valuable gifts; but there are many muse- 
 ums in this country and in Europe that would pay 
 for them more than their weight in gold. It may be 
 recalled that the Indians of the Bahamas and Cuba 
 had similar " chairs," made of stone and wood, and 
 which they valued highly. 
 
 Alas that the inexorable demands of history com- 
 pel me to chronicle a sad sequel to this romantic 
 
DESTRUCTION OF THE INDIANS 103 
 
 adventure of Don Bartholomew! But his evident 
 infatuation and Anacaona's beauty excited the jeal- 
 ousy of one who subsequently came to power in the 
 island, and the lovely princess was destroyed, together 
 with her brother and all his subjects. 
 
 The finding of gold by Diego Mendez turned the 
 tide of colonization from the north to the south coast 
 of the island, and was the origin of the city of Santo 
 Domingo, which yet exists, near the original site 
 selected for it by the Adelantado. Don Bartholo- 
 mew, acting in accordance with his eminent brother's 
 instructions, erected a fort on the eastern bank of 
 the Ozama River in 1496; but the settlement that 
 clustered around this fort was destroyed by a hur- 
 ricane in 1502. During the few years of its exist- 
 ence, however, this town of the east bank of the river 
 Con the west bank of which the present city stand-; 
 was the theater of important events. To it came 
 Christopher Columbus after the discovery of Trini- 
 dad, on his third voyage, and here he found his sturdy 
 brother employed in a business not altogether agree- 
 able. If the subjugation and subsequent develop- 
 ment of the island had been intrusted altogether 
 to Don Bartholomew, we might now have a far dif- 
 ferent story to relate, instead of being compelled to 
 write of repeated barbarities and massacres. 
 
 But Don Bartholomew, who was more richly en- 
 dowed than his brothers with the qualities necessary 
 to a leader of men and commander of armies, was 
 always compelled by circumstances to act in a subor- 
 dinate capacity. During the absence of the Admiral 
 there had occurred the uprising of a band of Span- 
 
104 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 iards under Roldan, who finally became a scourge to 
 the whole island, despite the efforts of the Adelantado 
 to suppress them. After committing horrible atroci- 
 ties in the Vega, they suddenly shifted the scene 
 of their depredations to the province of Xaragua, 
 and there set in motion a train of events that 
 brought about the extinction of those generous In- 
 dians who had received the Adelantado so well,* and 
 who also extended a welcome to these despicable 
 vagabonds. The two brothers Columbus united in 
 a last attempt to quell this rebellion, and in doing 
 so may have exercised undue severity upon their 
 quondam companions; for many were imprisoned, 
 and several were hung, without trial and upon un- 
 reliable testimony as to their guilt. These oppressive 
 measures caused complaints to be sent to Spain, and 
 when they reached the ears of the sovereigns an 
 officer of the royal household, one Francisco de Boba- 
 dilla, was sent to Santo Domingo to inquire into the 
 alleged irregularities there. He was invested with 
 ample powers for bringing any culprits to justice, 
 " to arrest their persons and sequestrate their 
 effects," and also furnished with blank letters of 
 authority by King Ferdinand which he could fill 
 out at his pleasure. When he arrived at Santo 
 Domingo we may be sure he found warrant enough 
 to proceed against the brothers, Christopher, Diego, 
 and Bartholomew, who were in power. As he entered 
 the harbor of the new city, the first object that at- 
 tracted his attention was the body of a Spaniard 
 swinging on a gibbet; the first persons who came out 
 to meet him were loud in their complaints of the 
 
DESTRUCTION OF THE INDIANS 105 
 
 arbitrary acts : C luinbus. The very next morn- 
 ing, after he had attended mass, he caused to he read 
 from the porch of the little chapel the paper from 
 his sovereigns proclaiming him supreme master of 
 the island. On the second morning he caused the 
 arrest of Don Diego, who had been left in charge of 
 the city and its defences, and sent an insolent mes- 
 sagc to the Admiral, who was absent in the interior, 
 commanding him to appear at once and answer 
 charge-. Christopher Columbus, discoverer of the 
 Indies and Admiral of the Ocean Sea. felt secure in 
 his authority, in view of the solemn compact, or 
 " capitulation.** entered into between himself and his 
 sovereigns at Granada just before he sailed on his 
 first voyage. Believing this message >nly another 
 vaporing of some upstart pretender, he hesitated to 
 comply with the command: still, as the capital city 
 was in a turmoil, he set out to investigate. As he 
 neared the city, another messenger met him with a 
 paper bearing the king's signature, ordering hini 
 t iive credence to Bobadilla and not to oppose his 
 wishe-. B>: owing to the inevitable, as a faithful serv- 
 ant of his sovereign, he continued his journey to the 
 capital and surrendered himself into the hand- ;r 
 Bobadilla. who so far transcended his real authority 
 as tc cast him into prison. 
 
 This high-handed act and the violence of the 
 people, who were now all arrayed against him. led 
 Columbus to expect nothing less than death, and when 
 at last Bobadilla had decided to send him to Spain. 
 and dispatched an officer to take him from the castle 
 to the ship, he was in despair, says his biographer, 
 
[06 THE STORIED WEST IND1KS 
 
 Washington [rving. "When be beheld the officer 
 enter with the guard, be thought it was to take bim 
 to the scaffold. l Villejo,' said be mournfully to 
 the commander of the guard, ' whither are yon tak- 
 ing me?' ' To the ship, your Excellency, to em- 
 bark for Spain,' replied the other. ' To embark?' 
 repeated the Admiral earnestly, l Villejo, do you 
 speak the truth?' i By the life of your Excellency,' 
 replied the bonesl officer, ' it is true.' With these 
 words the Admiral whs comforted, and felt as one 
 restored Prom death to life." 
 
 As Don Bartholomew was then at the head of 
 the army, seeking out the rebels and endeavoring to 
 restore quiet in the distracted island, it was Eeared 
 that he, being in possession of arms and having de- 
 voted adherents, might make trouble; but he held liis 
 duty to the king as above any personal considerations, 
 and gave himself up without resistance. Pie, too, 
 was placed in irons, and the three brothers were sent 
 under guard and in shackles to Spain. 
 
 We can not follow them into'Spain, for pressing 
 affairs claim our attention in the island. Under 
 Bobadilla the criminal misgovernment of Santo Do- 
 mingo became such that the poor Indians sank lower 
 and lower, and upon their limbs were riveted shackles 
 far stronger than those so unjustly placed upon Co- 
 lumbus. It was uol intended by Ferdinand and Isa- 
 bella that Bobadilla should do more than inquire into 
 the causes of troubles in the island, and so they sent 
 out another Spaniard to supersede him- — a human 
 monster named Nicolas de Ovando. This man had 
 so won their confidence that the sovereigns had no 
 
mvcTion of the otdi 107 
 
 conception of In- real character; bui as be was ap 
 parently modesi and courteous in demeanor, and 
 held high rank as a commander in the elevated Order 
 of Alcantara, be v.';;- thought to be tlie right man to 
 the raeani governorship of Santo Domingo, EL 
 
 - 'l at that port the middle of April, 1502. with the 
 larger fleet and the moat magnificent appointment 
 that had up to that time reaehed America, and imme- 
 diately took upon himself the supreme command. 
 
 Meanwhile Columbus had reinstated himself with 
 bis sovereigi • - - - the degree that I 1 
 allowed him to fit out and command another - 
 pedition, but with explicit ord* touch at 
 
 tlispaniola, It happened, In - -■ thai one oi 
 ships became somewhat anseaworthy, and be fr 
 advantage of tbfe cireumstanee " -■ the port of 
 Santo Domingo, and when off the harbor sent an 
 ofljeer asln 1 itb a request thai he be alh - 
 
 n for shelter, as be perceived signs of an ap- 
 proaching storm Thw reasonable reqtn • 1 n 
 ando refused, and tlj^rj i}j<- Admiral, mor< . i 
 
 - 1 Jjarj bis enemy, learning thai the fleet which 
 , 10 carry Bobadilkj baeli 
 
 depart, d that ^ bnrrieai - - arely about 
 
 10 bursi upon the island, and begge* Ovandi - - - 
 tain the v< - mtil the storm bad passed, He Ijjih- 
 
 denied shelter ai the port, stood down the < 
 and gathered his little fleet within the month of home 
 wild ■ rhere he awaited the burrieain ft came 
 
 be bad predieted, eeping the - th fury, 
 
 bing Bobadilla's fleet near tin - - - ra end of the 
 blai • - eking and - JJ but one small 
 
 9 
 
108 THE STOUT RD WEST INDIES 
 
 vessel containing what remained of the property of 
 the Admiral, and which alone reached Spain in safety. 
 
 Bobadilla himself was drowned, as his ship was 
 sunk, and with him perished Etoldan, the rebel chief, 
 and many oilier men of note in the colony. In 
 addition to the great loss of life caused by this hur- 
 ricane, vast treasure went down with the ill-fated 
 fleet — most of the gold accumulated through the ter- 
 rible toils of the Indians; but that which was most 
 lamented was the largest nugget ever obtained in 
 the New World. Tins famous mass of gold was found 
 by an Indian woman, a slave in the employ of two 
 Spanish miners at the Golden Tower, on the river 
 Ileyna. It was so large and regularly shaped that 
 the miners, in the first flush of their discovery, roasted 
 a pig and had it served upon it, at the same time 
 I toast i ng that no potentate of Europe, Asia, or the 
 Indies ever had dined off such a valuable table as 
 theirs! All this vast treasure still lies buried beneath 
 the sea near the cast end of Hispaniola, and awaits 
 the coming of some great man who shall imitate Sir 
 William Phipps, who found the sunken galleon off 
 Puerto Plata. 
 
 The fleet under command of Columbus safely 
 weathered the hurricane, though it was scattered by 
 the gales, and but for the consummate seamanship 
 of the Adelantado one of the vessels would have been 
 lost. Though dispersed in various directions, his ves- 
 sels all gathered Anally at Port ITcrmoso, on the 
 southwest coast of the island, and thence, after under- 
 going repairs, departed for the east coast of Hon- 
 duras. Few can imagine with what feelings of an- 
 
rRucmoH of the inmj 109 
 
 guish the Admiral and the Adelantado must Ku 
 
 abandoned the island and people they had bo long 
 
 and vainly striven to redeem from desolation. It 
 
 with sorrow and in disaster that this the last 
 
 s of Columbus Jgun, and in g >ater 
 
 >w and disaster it ended, -hall note when 
 
 we narrate the history of Jamaica. 
 
 Now v oing horror of all that 
 
 hideous history — the massacre of the generous and 
 amiable native- of Xaragua. We have seen two of the 
 jet their death, Guacanagari and Caonabo; 
 the third. Guarionex, who was made captive and 
 aboard a vessel of the fleet Columbus had endeavored 
 to detain, perished in company with Roldan and Boba- 
 dilla. Borne down by the atrocities of the Span- 
 iards, whom he had hospitably 1 and gei 
 ously supported, the fourth cacique. Boheehio. had 
 also died, and tl -ion to the cacique-hip : 
 Ived upon his sister, Anacaona. 
 
 Under pretense of collecting tribute, but really 
 with sinister intention. Ovando, the governor, 
 out. with a large force of foot and cavalry, to 
 Xaragua. He ived with the same gracious 
 
 courtesy and entertained with the same hospitality 
 that - mown the Adelantado several years be: 
 but which he requited in a manner that causes the 
 historian to shrink from the task of description. In 
 brief, after gathering within a hollow square of his 
 steel-clad soldiers the unsuspecting chiefs of the tribe 
 and their subject-, under pretense of showing thern 
 a novel tourney, he s wrders for their mi 
 
 shot, cut down with the sword, babes and 
 
HO THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 children were speared in their mothers' arms, women 
 were cut to pieces, and men were tortured at the 
 stake before being burned in the presence of their 
 wives and daughters. No Spaniard lost his life that 
 day, but thousands of Indians were slaughtered. 
 
CHAPTEE X 
 
 A CITY OF SAD MEMORIES 
 
 To those who delight in sensational incidents, in 
 accounts of massacres, carnage and deeds of blood, the 
 writer recommends a perusal of the history of Santo 
 Domingo at this period; but those who can sym- 
 pathize with a downtrodden and persecuted people, 
 upon whose necks the oppressors had placed the iron 
 heel of slavery, will turn with a shudder from nar- 
 rations of this character. I would fain draw a veil 
 over what transpired after the cruel Ovando came 
 to the island as governor; for humanity's sake it 
 would be better had he never existed. It matters 
 not that an interval of centuries lies between those 
 deeds and the present time. In the sight of God, 
 human life was as sacred then as now; but with the 
 Spaniards of that time it was held as something of 
 small value, and they shed blood as one might pour 
 out water from a flask; they revelled in deeds of vio- 
 lence, and delighted in the infliction of suffering. 
 
 Unfortunate Anacaona, once the pride of Xara- 
 gua, the delight of all who beheld her, friend of 
 the Spaniards and the benefactor of her people, was 
 loaded with chains, taken to the city of Santo Do- 
 mingo, and, after being put to the torture, ignomin- 
 iously hanged. Such was the barbarous spirit of the 
 
 111 
 
s 
 
 :■":">.>,' v .• , i ', *. \ % ■ :\ . . • \V. . , 
 
 N - 
 . - 
 
 l . 
 
 ... 
 - 
 
 Si s 
 
 V 
 
the priroiti /' ■ ■ '<f M.' P< 
 
 l',; ); "ii h tttul I' " ■-r.'-li with (/Ji4 
 tl< r»4 nf and imbj . -. 
 
 in ititute, t\u 
 
 >■, \n i ; ,,,H bloodtl 
 
 in I b( ' ■ ■■ ■ ■ ■ , ■ . 
 
 CM If"- r m < , - ,: tbC 
 
 I ' 
 
 <,hl y .< ' - (,f 
 
 l\,<- :■■ ■ ■ ' • ' 
 
 people <,f ( iTm, •'• 
 l:.' '. rjuteklv b< ' 
 
 ■ ' ' . 
 
 ' I ' ting the numhet 
 
 ■ '. b I 'oltwttbti ■/' : 
 
 atire ehronfcler of Jama 1 
 diffei I... ( • ■ ■ ' ■< - ' - - but 
 
 the natives oi if; fpaniola 1 - r ; 
 
 ,:,'■ rnilliij 
 the authority &f r 0] me 
 
 the . ■ 1 >ably 
 
 I-. 1 ieh 
 
 horrible wiebgdne&i adnril that in the ibort im 
 
 7,>l of fifty-' ' 
 
 the W< '• I.- - 
 
 oi Hi panioh a million 
 
 '.' ' ' 
 
 into loti {repartvndentc 
 
A CITY OP SAD MEMORIES 115 
 
 dig in the mines, without rest or intermission, until 
 death, their only refuge, put a period to their suffer- 
 ings. Such as attempted resistance or escape, their 
 merciless tyrants hunted down with dogs, which were 
 fed on their flesh. They disregarded sex and age, 
 and, with impious and frantic bigotry, even called in 
 religion to sanctify their cruelties. Some, more zeal- 
 ous than the rest, forced their miserable captives 
 into the water, and, after administering to them the 
 rite of baptism, cut their throats the next moment, 
 to prevent their apostasy! Others made a vow to 
 hang or burn thirteen Indians every morning, in 
 honor of our Saviour and the Twelve Apostles ! Nor 
 were these the excesses only of a blind and remorse- 
 less fanaticism. The Spaniards were actuated in 
 many instances by such wantonness of malice as is 
 wholly unexampled in the history of human deprav- 
 ity. . . . Martyr relates that it was a frequent prac- 
 tice among them to murder the Indians of Hispaniola 
 in sport, or merely, as he observes, ' to keep their 
 hands in use. 7 They had an emulation which of 
 them could most dexterously strike off the head of 
 an Indian at a blow, and wagers frequently depended 
 upon this hellish exercise." 
 
 Says Dr. Robertson, in his History of America: 
 " Several vessels were fitted out for the Lucayos 
 [Bahamas], the commanders of which informed the 
 islanders, with whose language they were acquainted, 
 that they came from a delicious country, in which 
 their departed ancestors resided, by whom they were 
 sent to invite them thither, to partake of the bliss 
 which they enjoyed. That simple people listened 
 
116 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 with wonder and credulity, and, fond of visiting their 
 friends, followed the Spaniards with eagerness. By 
 this artifice above forty thousand were decoyed into 
 Hispaniola, to share the sufferings which were the 
 lot of the inhabitants of that island, and to mingle 
 their groans and tears with those of that wretched 
 race of men. Many of them, in the angnish of de- 
 spair, refused all manner of sustenance, and, retiring 
 to desert caves and unfrequented woods, silently gave 
 up the ghost. . . . One of the Lucayans, who was 
 more desirous of life, or had greater courage than 
 most of his countrymen, procured instruments of 
 stone and cut down a large spongy tree called the 
 jarama, or silk cotton, the body of which he hollowed 
 into a canoe. He then provided himself with pad- 
 dles, some maize, and a few calabashes of water, and 
 persuaded another man and woman to embark with 
 him for the Lucayos. Their navigation was pros- 
 perous for near two hundred miles, and they were 
 almost within sight of their own long-lost shores, 
 when unfortunately they were met by a Spanish ship, 
 which brought them back to slavery and sorrow! " 
 
 The worst of these cruelties were practiced in the 
 time of the wretched Ovando, who has the unen- 
 viable reputation of having murdered the last of the 
 caciques. This cacique, a giant in stature, named 
 Cotubanama, reigned in the eastern province of 
 Higuey. Owing to the oppressions of the Spaniards 
 he, too, became rebellious, and Ovando dispatched an 
 army to kill him and subdue his tribe. The cam- 
 paign was long and bloody, for the natives of Higuey 
 were valiant, and, with the fate of their countrymen 
 
A CITY OF SAD MEMORIES 11? 
 
 in mind, most desperate. At last, however, gallant 
 Cotubanama was captured and hanged, like a com- 
 mon malefactor, at Santo Domingo. He was the 
 last of the native rulers, and after his death there 
 was for a time peace in the island — the peace of deso- 
 lation and of the desert. 
 
 After the massacre at Xaragua, bands of blood- 
 thirsty Spaniards ranged the island for months, seek- 
 ing victims for their lusts. Says Las Casas, who was 
 in the island at the time, and whose life shines out 
 brightly in contrast with those fiendish savages, his 
 countrymen: " They wished to inspire terror through- 
 out the land. They sought out the miserable In- 
 dians who had taken refuge in the mountains and in 
 caves, and massacred them without mercy: the aged 
 and infirm as well as able-bodied, feeble women and 
 helpless children. They cut off the hands of those 
 whom they found roving at large, and sent them, as 
 they said, to deliver themselves as ' letters to their 
 friends,' demanding their surrender. Numberless 
 were those whose hands were amputated in this 
 manner, and many of them sank down and died by 
 the way, through anguish and loss of blood." But 
 this does not by any means complete the list of Span- 
 ish tortures inflicted upon these helpless people. 
 Some were so unutterably fiendish as to be beyond 
 mention, having been copied from those malignant 
 demons of the Inquisition. Many of the chiefs were 
 roasted before slow fires, others hung upon long, low 
 gibbets, with their feet just touching the ground, and 
 then hacked to pieces with swords. Las Casas says 
 that he himself saw four or five of the principal 
 
l L3 
 
 tiiio sTomr.n wkst ixmr.s 
 
 lords broiled upon wooden gridirons, and that the 
 sergeant in charge, when his superior complained 
 thai the agoni ing cries "i the wretched victims dis 
 turbed his siesta, Riled their mouths with bullets to 
 stifle their groans] Las Casas sim^s this :is :i fact, 
 and adds that ho knew the sergeant, and was ac 
 quainted with his family, then living In Seville, 
 
 WCII may owe oi the historians whom we have 
 quoted exclaim with Indignation; c< Aftor reading 
 these accounts, who can help forming :i wish that the 
 hand ot Heaven, by some miraculous Interposition, 
 had swept these European tyrants from the face of 
 
 the earth, who, like 1 so iumuy bo:ists ot prey, ronmoil 
 
 the world only to desolate and destroy) and, more 
 remorseless than the fiercest savage, thirsted for 
 human blood, without having the Impulse of natural 
 appet ii o io plead In I heir defense ! 
 
 It further prooi were needed, we might turn to 
 the letters oi Columbus himself, tor in one of them, 
 written to the king, ho savs: " |?he [ndians o( llis 
 panioln were and are the riches o( the island, for 
 it is tho\ who cultivate and make the bread and the 
 provisions oi the Christians^ who dig the gold from 
 the mines, and perform :ill the offices and labors both 
 ot men and beasts. 1 am Informed that since 1 loft 
 this Island si\ parts out ot' seven ot' the natives are 
 dead, all through ill treatment and inhumanity) some 
 1>\ the sword, others by blows and cruel usage, others 
 through hunger, The greater part have perished in 
 the mountains and glens, whither they have fled, 
 from not being able to support the labors imposed 
 upon them " 
 
A city OF SAD MEMORIES I 19 
 
 The massacre of the unlive;, of Xaragua and the 
 death of Anacaona took place in L503; but though 
 the intelligence of these sad events reached Queen 
 Isabella the next year as she lay on her deathbed, 
 and she made Ferdinand promise to recall Ovando, 
 the author of these iniquities, the governor was 
 wringing a rich revenue from the island, and so was 
 allowed to remain four years longer. Finally, this 
 servant of Satan was called to Spain, where he was 
 rewarded with high honors, and in his place was sent 
 out l>"n Diego, the son of Columbus. He had long 
 been ;in applicant for the position formerly held l>,y 
 his Fill her, and after the death of Columbus, in L508, 
 he instituted a memorable process againsl his sover 
 eign before the Council of the [ndies at Seville. To 
 the credit "I this court, after ;i minute investigation 
 of his claims, he was at last pronounced hereditary 
 viceroy and lord high admiral of all the countries 
 mid islands discovered by his father, and declared 
 entitled to all his privileges. Ii i: j . improbable, how 
 ever, that King Ferdinand would have recognized 
 these claims even then had not Don Diego strength 
 ened his position by an illustrious marriage, with 
 Maria de Toledo, daughter <>f the grand commander 
 of Leon, and niece of the ever-infamous Duke r >f 
 Alva. 
 
 In the year L5O0 the noble pair arrived here 
 as viceroy and vicereine oi Hispaniola, accompanied 
 by ;< train of attendants and with inany highborn 
 ladies in their suite. I><>n Diego was warmly wel 
 corned, and lost no time in erecting a castellated 
 palace on the right bank of the Ozama, near its 
 
120 
 
 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 month, the ruins of which may yet be seen, a mass of 
 gray rock, still with the semblance of a castle, bnt 
 roofless and devoted to ignoble uses. The great city 
 wall, fortified and battlemented, which was begun 
 shortly before the palace, yet incloses the present capi- 
 tal of the island, and the homenage, sl castle also built 
 in 1509, still claims attention as one of the finest 
 
 Interior of Santo Domingo church. 
 
 specimens of its kind extant in this hemisphere. This 
 is not the castle in which Columbus was confined in 
 chains in 1500 (though often claimed as such), for 
 that was on the other side of the river, and long since 
 fell into ruin. But the chapel, from the doorway of 
 which Bobadilla proclaimed his authority for the 
 arrest and imprisonment of Columbus, yet exists — or 
 
A CITY OF SAD MEMORIES 121 
 
 at least a portion of it — on the east bank, opposite 
 and overlooking the city. 
 
 I have called this capital a city of sad mem- 
 ories, because so many events happened here con- 
 nected with the extinction of the Indians and the 
 declining years of Columbus. His fortunes may 
 be said to have taken a downward turn at Isabella, 
 in 1494, after he had sent home to slavery the five 
 hundred natives; but it was in connection with 
 this city of Santo Domingo that he experienced the 
 most cruel reverses of his life. Hither he came at 
 the end of his third voyage, in 1498, after the dis- 
 covery of Trinidad and the Pearl Islands, only to find 
 confusion and destruction rampant; hence he was 
 sent in chains by Bobadilla, in 1500; from this port 
 he was turned ignominiously away by Ovando, in 
 1502; and by the same arrogant governor was re- 
 ceived as a subject of charity, after his disastrous 
 voyage to Jamaica, in 1504. Hence he sailed, for 
 the last time across the Atlantic, to Spain, the same 
 year his royal benefactress, Isabella, passed away, 
 and but two years before his own demise, in 1506. 
 Sad yet glorious memories and events ever to be 
 cherished in the hearts of all Americans, this half- 
 ruined city of Santo Domingo, on the bank of the 
 river Ozama, holds within its walls! It has to-day, 
 more than four hundred years after it was founded, 
 no less than ten structures dating from the time of 
 Don Diego Columbus, whose viceroyship extended to 
 1517. 
 
 The head of the Franciscan monastery at that 
 time was Pedro de Cordova, at whose suggestion 
 
122 
 
 TUN STOIC I Nl > WEST IN DINS 
 
 Las Casas undertook to form thai ill-fated Indian 
 
 colons ;|| ( 'lllliana, oil the north coast i>\ Solllll Allier 
 
 ic;i, in i.v'i. The monastery walls are fasl orum 
 bling, yel to-day are the grandesl in the capital, with 
 deserted corridors in whioh those first missionaries 
 «>ncc walked, arches draped with vines, and a rootless 
 chapeL So complete is the ruin thai no one can loll 
 evicilv whore the remains oi those two famous men, 
 Alt»ns(» de Ojedfl and Don Bartholomew Columbus, 
 
 who died ;ind were hnried here, now res!. 
 
 Manx greal names, indeed, ;ire identified with 
 
 (his capital oity of ["Iispaniola, once the seal of a 
 
 New World empire; and (here is none greater than 
 
 thai connected with (he church and monastery of 
 Santo DomingO, which was erected carls in the fil'Sl 
 decade *>( the sixteenth centnrv, hill still in a state of 
 :\iH^\ preservation, This mime is that of Kartolomc 
 
 de Las Casas, who (<w his lifelong efforts in behalf of 
 the oppressed Indians was officially designated their 
 
 " proteotor," and whose history of Spanish crimes is 
 :i Standing reproach to the country licit gave him 
 
 birth, Attached to the church of Santo Domingo 
 
 .ire the ruined walls n( America's first university 
 
 Pounded by the Dominicans, which was a flourishing 
 Bea1 of [earning a hundred years before the Pilgrim 
 Fathers landed at Plymouth, and so celebrated that 
 
 the oity beoame known as " the Alliens o\ (he New 
 
 World." Bu1 ohuroh and university are better 
 known from their association with Las Casas, who was 
 
 born in 1474, and whose father sailed with (\>lnni 
 
 bus on his first voyage, Me was a contemporary of 
 the Admiral, yel, says his biographer, " he survived 
 
A <:ity OF BAD MBMOlilKl IT; 
 
 linn Ly ; -. i :-. f . y years, on lli v<-<l King l'<i<lin;in<l (ill/ 
 , < ;n ( li;irl<-: V eight, I I <rn;i n ( <,t I « n i rx 1 1 < n / < !;, i 
 
 dina] Ximonoi forty-nine, and Pizarro twenty-ftve 
 y<-;ir;^ dying in L56(3 :it the age of ninety i,w<>.' 7 
 
 H, was thoughl that L&\ ( '■> a< accompanied f '«< 
 Inmbui '-II In third voyage, in 1498, returning when 
 !)<• v/;i ; < ni home 111 chain , in I 500 , but it < 
 wJ I authenticated thai be came to [fispaniola with 
 ( )campo m 1 50 ' recci ring ■■> vt pari imiento of In 
 diani , III- <- i he k i Kighl yean later li<- wai or 
 dained ;' priest, and in 1511 1m- went with I H< 
 Velasquez to Cuba, where, in 1514, he became eon 
 winced <>f ili<- sinful nature of Indian slavery, " 
 nounced his holdings, and wenl to Spain \<> pii ad 
 wiili Ferdinand the cause "i the downtrodden ha 
 tives, He arrived too lati tosei him, ai hi wai then 
 on In deathbed; bul Cardinal XiiDnnr;-, who 
 U>\- -a while I';'" ni <J' the kingdom, approved hU 
 '•Im no , and he wan senl baci to i [ispaniola em 
 powered to do ;ill he could to eorrecl the terrible 
 
 ;il/n« !l< •.•/ ; i I li ,v;i il < <l ;il ' v ry I urn \,y l'<,n<<. 
 
 bishop of Burgoi and president <>( the Council of the 
 Indies, who himself owned large number* of [ndian 
 slaves, and when ()<• ;•< one time told him thai more 
 than seven thousand children had perished in three 
 months' time in the island of Cuba :<lon<- that hard 
 hearted prelate answered* "Well, whal is that to 
 me, and wlmi i ■■ ii to the l- ing? " 
 
 f if nothing to your lordship, <>r to the king/' 
 indignantly rejoined ka« Casas, "thai all these inno 
 cenl soul* should perish? ( > great and eternal God! 
 of whai use our preaching when the [ndiam sei 
 
4^1 nil ' 
 
 
 t ;f i fJUl 11 k' 
 
 
 IE^,:V : ;^ M^|$ 
 
 Ivu U'Kmuo »!>' I i . i i . i . 
 
A city OF HAD MEMORIES 125 
 
 those who call themselve 'Chri itian . ' acting thus 
 
 in Opposition tO ( ' I j r i , t j ; i r j - ! " 
 
 Finally, in L521, he wai allowed to attempt a 
 colony for the protection of the [ndians; but it 
 failed, through no direct fault of his own, and the 
 next year, despairing and almost broken hearted, he 
 joined the Dominican brotherhood of Hispaniolfl and 
 retired from the yorld, u to the great joy of the 
 brothers, and also of the inhabitants of Hi ipaniola " ; 
 but for different reasons, The wicked Spaniards 
 rejoiced, thinking they now had 1"'" safely interned; 
 but during tho e eight years of seclu ion he vas medi 
 tating upon his great lifework that monument of 
 learning and re earch, chronicle of Spani h atrocitie 
 'I he Brief [ielation of the Dei truction of the In 
 dies. II'- afterward wont to Spain, and w& appointed 
 mi aionary to Guatemala and bishop of Chiapas in 
 Mexico, But note, reader mine, that his greate I 
 labon were performed in Santo Domingo, and within 
 that monai tery (of which but ruined walls remain 
 to-day) 'In man conceived the work which will out 
 lai ' i he centuriei ! 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 MORE ABOUT SANTO DOMINGO 
 
 There have been several contestants for the 
 honor of being the oldest settlement of European 
 foundation in the New World, but without a doubt 
 it must be assigned to the city of Santo Domingo. If 
 anything were to-day remaining of Isabella, the first 
 city founded by Columbus, on the north coast of the 
 island, in 1493, that spot would most certainly be 
 entitled to the honor; but while at one time there 
 were many houses there, and a floating population 
 of hundreds, still Isabella did not long remain a place 
 of residence. It was virtually abandoned in 1496, 
 when the Adelantado founded Santo Domingo, and, 
 after existing in ruins for centuries, its last remains, 
 consisting of a few tons of hewn stone, earthen tiles, 
 and shards of pottery, were sent to the Columbian Ex- 
 position, in 1893. Thus ill-starred Isabella, now rep- 
 resented merely by a vacant city site and a name, is 
 given over to the bats and owls. 
 
 I have alluded to some of the most interesting 
 relics of Spanish times still to be seen in the capital; 
 but nearly everything here, in truth, leads us back 
 to those ancient days of Spanish domination. There 
 is one structure, however, that may be said to pre- 
 sent nearly four centuries of Spanish-American his- 
 126 
 
MORE ABOUT SANTO DOMINGO 127 
 
 tory in epitome, and that is the old cathedral, which 
 stands in the heart of the city. It was planned in 
 1514 and finished in 1540, and while almost every 
 street, every plaza, and every angle of the inclosing 
 walls of the capital is identified with some one of 
 Spain's greatest minds when Spain was truly great, 
 this ecclesiastical structure overtops them all for in- 
 terest, perhaps, except the old university where the 
 erudite Las Casas taught and labored. 
 
 There is, in the opinion of many, a great treasure 
 in the custody of the cathedral chapter, of its very 
 nature unique, and which consists of the sacred dust 
 of Columbus. Now, it is perhaps not generally known 
 that two cities, Havana and Santo Domingo, at one 
 time claimed to possess the time-honored remains of 
 the Great Admiral. To know how this strange thing 
 happened, we must transport ourselves, in imagina- 
 tion, to Spain, the " motherland " of the Spanish colo- 
 nies in the West Indies. We must imagine ourselves 
 in the city of Yalladolid in the year 1506, and gath- 
 ered reverently about the deathbed of the great 
 Genoese as, in faint and broken accents, he tells of his 
 desire to make one more voyage across the Atlantic, 
 and to be interred in the convent of Concepcion de la 
 Vega, which he was instrumental in founding, in the 
 island of his greatest achievements. This desire is ex- 
 pressed in his last will and testament, in accordance 
 with which — but not until about the year 1540 — his 
 remains were removed from a convent church in 
 Seville, whither they had been taken from Valladolid, 
 and transported to Santo Domingo. They did not 
 obtain final sepulture in the convent of the Vega, 
 
128 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 however, as it was destroyed by an earthquake about 
 that time, but were deposited in the cathedral of the 
 capital, then approaching completion. This pious 
 office was performed by the noble widow of Don 
 Diego Columbus, who also at the same time took 
 thither the remains of her husband, who had died 
 in 1526. We have no direct evidence that this was 
 done, but nineteen years later, or in 1559, the arch- 
 bishop of that diocese wrote : " The tomb of Don 
 Cristobal Colon, where are his bones, is much vener- 
 ated in this cathedral." It is true that there is not 
 the slightest record of the sepulture, but this is ex- 
 plained by the fact that less than thirty years 
 later the capital was bombarded and the city sacked 
 by Sir Francis Drake. Fearing the desecration of 
 the tomb containing one so well known as Columbus, 
 all traces of it are said to have been obliterated by 
 covering it over with earth or plaster. Thus all evi- 
 dence was finally lost, and for more than two hun- 
 dred years thereafter the history of the event was 
 preserved solely through local tradition. 
 
 Now we come to another chapter in this strange 
 story. In 179 5, when Santo Domingo was ceded to 
 France, Spain nobly resolved that the ashes of the 
 great discoverer should not rest beneath an alien 
 flag, and so she sent an admiral of her navy to re- 
 move them to Havana, accompanied by a reputed 
 descendant of Columbus, the Duke of Yeragua, 
 grandfather of the gentleman of that title whom 
 we so highly honored in 1893. These gentlemen of 
 Spain came over with a fleet, and, guided by the 
 local tradition, which was to the effect that these 
 
MORE ABOUT SANTO DOMINGO 
 
 129 
 
 remains lay at the right of the high altar of the cathe- 
 dral, they found and opened a vault beneath the pave- 
 ment of the presbytery, on the " gospel side," which 
 was about one yard in depth and one in breadth. 
 Within this vault they found some plates of lead, 
 together with fragments of bone and dust, all which 
 were reverentlv collected and transferred with sol- 
 
 Interior of the cathedral, Santo Domingo. 
 
 emn ceremony aboard the man-of-war San Lorenzo, 
 then lying in the hart 
 
 They then set sail with their precious relics for 
 Havana, where, with pomp and parade, they w 
 taken to the cathedral and placed within a niche 
 opened for that purpose in the wall at the right of 
 the presbytery. A marble tablet was affixed, after 
 
130 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 the niche was closed, bearing that grandiloquent 
 inscription beginning, " restos y imagen del grande 
 Colon" which so many travelers have seen and have 
 so often transcribed. 
 
 Still another chapter: The Spanish officials to 
 whom had been delegated this honorable duty sin- 
 cerely believed they had performed it thoroughly 
 and satisfactorily. They had found a vault contain- 
 ing human bones and dust, and, moreover, it was 
 approximately in the spot designated by tradition as 
 that where Columbus lay buried. But they had not 
 found, and they did not claim they had, any trace 
 of an inscription or other evidence showing beyond 
 a doubt that these were the remains they had sought ! 
 No one ever disputed the correctness of their conclu- 
 sions until 1877, eighty-two years after the conjec- 
 tural transference, when some workmen were mak- 
 ing repairs in the chancel of the cathedral of Santo 
 Domingo, another vault was brought to light at the 
 left of the altar. This contained only fragments of a 
 leaden case, but with an inscription sufficiently legible 
 to show that the ashes formerly there were those of 
 Don Luis Colon, son of Don Diego, grandson of 
 Christopher Columbus, and the first Duke of Ye- 
 ragua. The archbishop of the diocese, a learned and 
 venerable man, then recalled the tradition (strangely 
 for the first time) that the entire presbytery had been 
 granted to the Columbus family as a place of sepul- 
 ture, and so was moved to institute a search for the 
 others. And others were found ! First, the veritable 
 vault from which the Havana remains were taken; 
 then, separated from it by a slab of stone less than a 
 
MORE ABOUT SANTO DOMINGO 
 
 131 
 
 foot in width, yet another, close to the cathedral wall. 
 From this latter was taken a leaden casket in good 
 preservation, on the cover or lid of which was an in- 
 scription showing that it was, in truth, dedicated to 
 the " First Admiral and Discoverer of America." 
 This inscription was on the outside; inside the lid 
 
 Leaden casket found in 1877. 
 
 was the following: " Il'tre y Esc' do Varon, Dn. 
 Crisioval Colon " - — " Noble and illustrious man, 
 Don Christopher Columbus.' 7 A critical examina- 
 tion of the contents of the casket revealed human 
 bones, some of them well preserved, though the skull 
 was missing; a silver plate with the titles of Colum- 
 bus ; and a large bullet, which is supposed to have been 
 received by him in Africa, the wound from which 
 caused him much, pain throughout his life. 
 
 There is the evidence, " in a nutshell/' and per- 
 haps the reader may be as well qualified as the writer 
 
132 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 to judge of the authenticity of the newly discov- 
 ered remains; though I myself made a most exhaust- 
 ive examination, when I was in Santo Domingo, in 
 1892, and came to the conclusion that the real ashes 
 of Columbus were still in that island. As I wrote at 
 that time: " The error of the Spaniards, in 1795, lay 
 in their ignorance of the fact that there were two 
 vaults closely contiguous, and that only a few inches 
 from the one they opened was another, and the one 
 they really sought. Still the Spanish admiral and 
 the Duke of Yeragua took the remains of somebody 
 to Havana, and if they were not those of the Ad- 
 miral, then to whom did they pertain? We can not, 
 of course, assume that he had ' two sets of remains,' 
 like the Arab marabout in Algiers who is commemo- 
 rated by two tombs; but the answer may be found 
 in the statement that they were probably those of 
 his son, Don Diego, which were taken to the island 
 by his widow at the same time his father's ashes were 
 transferred thither from Spain." 
 
 At the time of the rediscovery, in 1877, all the 
 foreign consuls then resident at Santo Domingo were 
 gathered to inspect the vault and casket, in order 
 that there might be no suspicion of fraud, and among 
 them was the Italian representative, Signor Luigi 
 Cambiaso, who afterward issued a document sub- 
 stantiating the Dominican claim in every particular. 
 Fourteen years later, when I met him there, he was 
 of the same opinion still — that the ashes of Columbus 
 yet rested where he himself desired they should be 
 placed, in the island of Santo Domingo. It was, I 
 thought at the time, a strange chance that Signor 
 
MORE ABOUT SANTO DOMINGO 133 
 
 Gambiaso, himself a native of Genoa, in which city 
 Columbus was born, should have been resident in 
 Santo Domingo during this official examination! 
 
 Another chapter, or, rather, a sequel: In the 
 autumn of 1898, after the Spaniards had to evacuate 
 Havana, the retiring governor general, Blanco, in- 
 vited some dignitaries to be present at the removal 
 from their niche in the cathedral of the " only legiti- 
 mate remains " of the great Columbus, which he was 
 about to take on board a man-of-war and carry to 
 Spain. Like his countrymen of a century ago, Gen- 
 eral Blanco declared that the remains of Spain's illus- 
 trious admiral should not be allowed to rest, even for 
 a moment, under an alien banner. So these ashes of 
 a Columbus (but whether of the great Christopher or 
 of his son, is an open question) were taken on another 
 trip across the Atlantic, and found what we hope will 
 be their last resting place — beneath the pavement of 
 the grand old cathedral of Seville. Counting this last 
 voyage, in death and life Columbus made ten trips 
 across the Atlantic, without it nine ; though it is prob- 
 able that not his remains, but those of his two sons, 
 Diego and Ferdinand, now repose beneath that 
 marble slab in the Seville cathedral, with its world- 
 famous inscription : " A Castila y a Leon, Mundo 
 Nuevo did Colon.'''' 
 
 Peace to their ashes, wherever they lie! 
 
 Now let us take up again the thread of Hispa- 
 niola's history, and snip off such portions as may seem 
 noteworthy. I would not say that, since the days of 
 the conquistador es, there have been no men of mark 
 
i ;i 
 
 in i' HTOUIKI) NN WHT INOIRH 
 
 Who hftVC ri' i'ii lie. i,l ami | Jioii Mm". aboVO limit' IcI 
 lo\VS| ImiI il lliciv lia\c Im'cii -ih'li, l!u'\ w.'iv lew, and 
 .iic Jillun II l<> liihl A', va rl \ .1 ■■ I • I . I Im i l.i nil w .i- 
 
 Inflicted wiiii the Spanish inoui ii, m :.. who, though 
 
 ilu'\ dill not '1'iwl 80 mans to ilif • i.ik,' .i . iii Spain, yet 
 lm,',l limit |»ur.t". wrll Willi the |»r, ',(•(•, I. Ii.mii ,.mi 
 
 ll ',.11,', I |M ,'|','l I I,' I'll,' l\(,MMllll I'CllllllX Wllllt" ,',l 
 
 II, 'I ,Mtl\ llm f\l liit'l l, Ml el lilt" Indian- Ill III panmla, 
 ImiI (lie I, Mai divlnm ,>l llu' Island hi a iviiiincr, aa I 
 ■>'ir,'. aii,l .!■■ a I.i,i,m in llm \r\\ World DollCY, In 
 (In- \,'.n l.»l.» H VVaS ivporhal llial llm Spa ma i »!•• 
 ivina iniii:; Imiv ,h,l n,M CXCCCd in all eleven ill, mi 
 .111,1 ',miI'., and " llm c Ian, I w a-. alum. I brOUgh I to i\ 
 desert " Idm srwral expeditions >'' the great Eng 
 lisli •.,•.) pirate, Sir I'Vaiui'. Drake, lia>l mmd the fill] 
 ol forlOTO Santo I lomingO In 1586, PoV im.laiuv, 
 
 he did nil he could to destroy the capital, after he 
 had reduced it b^ his fleet; l»ni the massively con 
 •nai,i,',l houses resisted his attempts to fire them, 
 so that he was finally induced to compromise on :i 
 ran-, an ,»i iwimiin five thousand duoats (about thirty 
 thousand dollars) and take his departure, /Vgain, In 
 i - i) >, not long before hia death, he harried iln v coasts 
 an, I hastened the end oi tlm already moribund colony 
 Finally, m 1606, the royal court at Madrid ordered 
 it-, ports closed, except the harbor of Santo Do 
 mingo, and all the Spanish families into the interior, 
 \l.m\ complied, becoming agriculturists oi 8 rude 
 sort, though others emigrated to the more prosper 
 .Mi-, colonies of Mexico, Ouba, and Peru, leaving 
 their plantations uncultivated and their houses to 
 
 EfO l* 1 mm. 
 
! 
 
 ■-. , r. • 
 
 - 
 ■ 
 
 ; 
 
136 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 cestors had long ruled in the mountains of Baoruco, 
 and he himself was educated in the Franciscan monas- 
 tery of the capital. Indignant at the cruelties of 
 the Spaniards toward his countrymen, and revolting 
 at the inhumanity of the man to whom he was 
 assigned in a repartimiento, he organized the Indians 
 secretly, collected arms from their masters, and fled 
 to the mountains. He and his followers only de- 
 fended themselves, never attacked; but they kept up 
 the fight for more than ten years, eventually securing 
 a truce, which was kept for five years, and an honor- 
 able peace in 1534. There were then remaining 
 about four thousand Indians, and they were assigned 
 lands at Boya, about fifty miles north of the capital. 
 Henrique had been converted to Christianity while in 
 the monastery, and told a missionary that he had 
 never failed to repeat his prayers every day during 
 the long period of revolt, and that he was now happy 
 to conclude a peace, as he desired nothing but justice 
 and freedom from slavery. Here, at Boya, the last 
 of the native Indians of Hispaniola are said to have 
 expired, some time during the seventeenth century; 
 and (as I can sadly testify, having searched the island 
 over for trace of them) there are no people of the 
 aboriginal race remaining in ill-fated Hispaniola. 
 
 It may seem a reflection upon our civilization that 
 " a peaceful land has no history," yet such seems to 
 be the truth; and were it not for the appalling fact 
 that this once happy island had been reduced to peace 
 through terrible oppression, we might with pleasure 
 note its condition during the succeeding century, for 
 there was nothing worthy a narration. Still, as Spain 
 
MORE ABOUT SANTO DOMINGO 137 
 
 was yet at war, in a desultory way, with other nations, 
 there were some who looked with covetous eyes upon 
 poor, worn-out Santo Domingo. In the year 1655, 
 for example, Admirals Penn and Yenables, on their 
 way to the island of Jamaica, made an attack 
 upon the city; but their troops, being repeatedly 
 taken in ambuscaeles, were driven away. The old 
 writers ascribe their defeat to a cause which certainly 
 never operated before to bring disaster to an armed 
 force, and that was an army of crabs! " The land 
 crabs," says one, " are found here of immense size, 
 and burrow in the sand, at night issuing out in 
 great numbers. On the occasion mentioned above 
 the English landed an ambuscade to surprise the 
 Spanish camp, which, being unprepared, must cer- 
 tainly have fallen. The advanced lines from the . 
 boats had already formed, and were proceeding to 
 take post behind a copse, when they heard the loud 
 and quick clatter of horses' feet, and, as they sup- 
 posed, of the Spanish horsemen, who were very dex- 
 terous, and whose galling onset they had experienced 
 the day before. Thus believing themselves discov- 
 ered, and dreading an attack before their comrades 
 joined them, they embarked precipitately and aban- 
 doned the enterprise. But the alarm proved to be 
 caused by these large crabs, which, at the sound of 
 footsteps, receded to their holes, the noise made by 
 their clattering over the dry leaves being that which 
 the English soldiers mistook for the sound of cavalry. 
 In honor of this ' miracle,' a feast was instituted by 
 the natives, and afterAvard celebrated each year, 
 under the name of ' the Feast of the Crabs,' on which 
 
138 THE STORIED WUST INDIES 
 
 occasion a solid gold land crab was carried about in 
 procession." 
 
 For (lie last two hundred and (illy years (lie his- 
 tory of Santo Domingo, island and capital, has been 
 in the main uneventful, and without interest to the 
 world nl large. Not that il has been without inci- 
 dent, for the demon <>f discord has stalked through- 
 out the length and breadth <>f the land; but il has 
 presented n<> feature, no aspect, save that <>l a civili- 
 zation l<> bo deprecated, n state of government to be 
 avoided. lis morals and motives are, and always 
 have boon, the lowest ever tolerated by humanity, 
 always excepting those of the western portion of the 
 island under the government of the Haitian negroes. 
 
 Santo Domingo comprises about two thirds of 
 that large and fertile island once known as Hispa- 
 niol.-i, and contains a population of about six hundred 
 thousand, mostly mulattoes, with a few while people, 
 .•ill speaking the Spanish language. 1 1 passed out of 
 Spanish hands in 1 V 1 > r> , for ;i time reverted to Spain 
 again in L861, I >i 1 1 by a revolt in L863 regained its 
 kt independence," and since L865 the governmenl has 
 masqueraded ;is a republic. Under President Ulises 
 I Eeureaux, who w;is assassinated in duly, L899, the 
 people endured oppression for years; but ill hisl- rose 
 iii revolt ;ind placed in power an able executive in 
 the person of General Juan [sidro Jimenez. 
 
 Santo Domingo to-day furnishes ;i striking illus- 
 tratioii of what despotism and misrule may accom- 
 plish in ;i hind infinitely rich in natural resources; 
 for there are still mountain regions which human 
 
MORU ABOUT SANTO DOMINGO 
 
 139 
 
 foot has never trod, save that of the Indian or fugi- 
 tive negro; mines unworked since they were officially 
 closed in 1543, though declared rich a century ago; 
 and vast areas of forest and cultivable lands, only 
 awaiting the coming of a stable government and civili- 
 zation for their profitable development. 
 
 U 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 BUCCANEERS AND TREASURE SEEKERS 
 
 One night in June, about the middle of the 
 seventeenth century, a great three-decker galleon was 
 plowing through the Windward Passage between 
 Cuba and Haiti. Spain at that time traded with her 
 colonies across the Atlantic by means of a flota, or 
 licet, of galleons, each one of three or four decks, 
 and carrying fifty guns, sailing from Seville. This 
 particular galleon flew the tia ( <>' of the Spanish vice 
 admiral, and was then on her way home from the 
 Isfhmns of Panama, laden with a vast store of gold 
 and pearls from the west coast of South America. 
 Suddenly out of the darkness issued the hail of " Boat 
 ahoy! " and, looking over the towering bulwarks of 
 his ship, the captain of the galleon saw an insignifi- 
 cant pinnace, which he could hardly discern in the 
 gloom. kt Get out the crane," he shouted to his nnder- 
 officer, "and bring the rascals on deck, boat and all, 
 where we can deal with them if they are enemies, 
 and treat with them at our leisure if they are 
 friends." Eaving thus disposed of the affair, as he 
 thought, the captain went below; but the people in 
 the pinnace, drawing their little craft alongside, 
 made her fast to the gigantic galleon by grappling 
 140 
 
BUCCANEERS AND TREASURE SEEKERS 141 
 
 irons, and, without waiting the Spaniards' pleasure, 
 swarmed up the side of the ship. 
 
 Led by a famous French buccaneer called Peter 
 the Great, they poured over the bulwarks like a tor- 
 rent, each man with a brace of pistols in his belt, 
 an arquebus slung over his shoulders, and a great 
 knife or cutlass between his teeth. Then the aston- 
 ished watch saw that the invaders were bloodthirsty 
 pirates, and that they were in danger of losing the 
 ship to these daring rascals; but their discovery came 
 too late. Swiftly, silently, the terrible buccaneers 
 leaped upon the Spanish sailors, stabbing some and 
 braining others with their clubbed arquebuses, until 
 the deck was cleared. 
 
 Meanwhile, in the cabin down below, the captain 
 and the vice admiral were indulging in a game of 
 cards and drinking success to their voyage in Span- 
 ish wines. A noise as of shuffling feet attracted their 
 attention, and looking up they saw a dreadful appari- 
 tion on the cabin stairs — a burly pirate standing there, 
 with curling beard and naming eyes, in each hand a 
 pistol, a shining cutlass between his teeth, and behind 
 him yet other ferocious visages, and more grimy 
 hands stretched out, holding pistols at full cock and 
 pointed at them! 
 
 "Santa Maria Santisima! " burst forth the gal- 
 lant vice admiral. " Did these devils come straight 
 from infierno? How gained they the deck? " he de- 
 manded of the captain. But this officer was quite 
 speechless from fright, and Peter the Great answered 
 for him: " Never you mind, but show us the hiding 
 place of your treasures! " Humiliated and woe- 
 
L42 
 
 I IK STORIED WEST IN DUOS 
 
 begone, his hands tied behind him, and with a pistol 
 held ;ii his head, the vice admiral soon divulged the 
 secret lockers where the pearls and jewels were 
 stored, and then had the sorrow of seeing his beau- 
 tiful galleon at the mercy of the pirates, who turned 
 her head aboul and here up for the island in which 
 they had their headquarters. The galleon was a 
 good sailer, and so, ns these buccaneers did not yearn 
 for gore unnecessarily spilled, they gave the Span- 
 iards their pinnace in exchange for the ship, and soul, 
 them (as many ;is could he crowded into her) oil to 
 Cuba in this frail and open boat. li was a sorry 
 exchange Tor the Spanish vice admiral; but what 
 
 cared Ihe buccaneers? lie mighl thank his stars that 
 they gave him this one chance for his life. 
 
 'Idie galleon was brought to anchor inside a line 
 of frothing coral reefs, guarding the south coast ot 
 
 their island. A narrow and tortUOUS passage led to 
 
 Ihe landlocked harbor, only to he entered by a 
 
 skilled pilot; hut once within, it was seen that this 
 
 channel was the gateway to a pirate's paradise. 
 
 And this island? It was called and still hears 
 
 the name of Tortuga. It was Columbus, I think, 
 who first gave it this name- Tortuga de Mar, or 
 
 the Sea Turtle, because of its shape. Under its 
 
 lee he obtained shelter from a storm, iii December, 
 L492. It is hut a few miles in length, with great 
 cliffs having trees on them growing like ivy against 
 :i wall, and one good harbor with two entrances, 
 each with water deep enough for a seventy-gun 
 ship. Around the harhor, completely hidden from 
 the sea, lav the pirate town, where lived the rich- 
 
BUCCANEERS AND TREASURE SEEKERS H;>> 
 
 est planters also, and where the sands were piled 
 high with spoils from many a captured ship. The 
 island furnished an abundance pf wood for shipbuild- 
 ing, wild fruits and vegetables, medicinal plants, wil<l 
 boars, wild pigeons, land crabs in did,, almost all 
 that the pirates needed for subsistence and for carry- 
 ing on their nefarious calling, The only objection- 
 able things were the wild dogs, whieh they vainly 
 tried to exterminate, and which, like the hogs, were 
 a legacy from Spanish occupation in the previous 
 century. 
 
 This taking of the vice admiral's precious galleon 
 was not the first aggressive act committed by the buc- 
 caneers, but it was the first important capture they 
 
 bad made. Neither is the story I have related n 
 
 detached incident in their career, but merely a link 
 in a chain of circumstances by which the Spaniards 
 were eventually placed on the defensive and almost 
 expelled from the Caribbean Sen. 
 
 1 have told how crue] the Spaniards were to the 
 unlives of these islands; how they hounded them and 
 tortured them, until, as an old writer Ims said, et the 
 name of Spaniard was equivalent to that of mur 
 (\i'vcv. , ' > From the first the Spaniards claimed exclu- 
 sive possession not only of the hinds they discovered, 
 but of the adjacent sens; and when, finally, the atten 
 lion of other nations, particularly of the French and 
 English, was attracted to these rich regions, their sea- 
 men and traders were not slow in defying Spanish 
 pretensions. Then, as early as L600, the Spaniards 
 began a system of persecution, so dw ns they were 
 able putting a stop to foreign commerce in West In- 
 
BUCCANEERS AND TREASURE SEEKERS 145 
 
 dian waters, and seizing all foreign vessels by means 
 of their cruisers on the watch, and which were called 
 guardia costas. Their arbitrary seizures and their 
 cruel treatment of prisoners caused the English and 
 French (though these nations were nominally at peace 
 with Spain) to encourage the fitting out of privateers 
 for the purpose of making reprisals on Spanish com- 
 merce. They found themselves in need of some place 
 as a depot, or rendezvous, in the West Indies, and 
 chartered companies of both nationalities seized upon 
 the little island of St. Kitt's. The French com- 
 pany was fostered by Cardinal Richelieu, who so 
 persistently combated Spain throughout his career. 
 Every one embarking in this enterprise was required 
 to remain in the island and labor for the benefit of 
 the company during three years in return for his 
 passage out and back; and these became the much- 
 oppressed engages, who were afterward treated as 
 slaves by their original masters, and later by the 
 buccaneers, who obtained possession of them. 
 
 The English settlers of St. Kitt's were under Sir 
 Thomas Warner, an enterprising gentleman who 
 labored long and faithfully for the betterment of 
 these islands. As both companies, though of differ- 
 ent nationalities, had a bond of sympathy in their 
 hatred of the Spanish, the French and English set- 
 tlers lived on the island amicably. But it was not 
 long before this settlement on an island claimed by 
 Spain — though it had never been occupied for colo- 
 nizing purposes — attracted the attention of the Span- 
 iards; and in 1630 a fleet under Don Frederic de 
 Toledo, being at Puerto Rico on its way to Brazil, 
 
146 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 was sent to destroy the colonies, so effectually carry- 
 ing out the purposes of the king that all the settlers 
 were dispersed, and the island left practically de- 
 populated. At the same time the island of Santa 
 Cruz, which had been occupied by Dutch settlers, 
 was attacked, and these various fugitives belonging 
 to three different countries, but all sufferers from 
 Spanish severity, united to form a colony which was 
 a thorn in the side of Spain for many years. Most of 
 them fled to the island of Tortuga, off the north coast 
 of Haiti, and banded together for mutual protection 
 — these French, Dutch, and English fugitives, with 
 the Spaniards as their common enemy. 
 
 Thus we see how, in the first place, the Spaniards 
 had excited the horror and aversion of all their Con- 
 tinental neighbors through their inhuman treatment 
 of the American aborigines; in the second place, how 
 they drew upon themselves the united action of the 
 French and English by their arbitrary claims; in the 
 third place, how they cemented together what would 
 otherwise have been harmless colonists into a band of 
 predatory rovers, who preyed upon their ships and 
 commerce. This was the origin of that class of sea 
 rovers known as buccaneers, sprung from the drag- 
 ons' teeth sown by the Spaniards during their mis- 
 rule in the West Indies. 
 
 At first these wanderers subsisted upon the re- 
 sults of the chase and the little gardens they culti- 
 vated in Tortuga; then they went over to the larger 
 island of Haiti, just across the channel, on hunting 
 adventures. Haiti was overrun with wild hogs and 
 cattle, sprung from stock the Spaniards had left there 
 
BUCCANEERS AND TREASURE SEEKERS 147 
 
 many years before, and for a long time the Tortugans 
 subsisted upon what these cattle yielded them in 
 hides, tallow, and jerked beef. It seems a sort of 
 poetic justice that those who were destined to bring 
 disaster to the Spanish merchant marine should sub- 
 sist upon what Spanish settlers had provided. From 
 
 Indians boucanning fish. 
 
 their peculiar manner of preserving the wild beef, 
 they finally received their generic name of bucca- 
 neers. After slaughtering a wild bull or cow, they 
 cut its flesh into strips and smoked it over a slow fire, 
 thus preserving its good qualities — a custom obtained 
 from the Caribs. This process was termed boucanier 
 in the Norman-French patois, and was corrupted to 
 buccaneer, a name that finally stuck to those that 
 used it. One class of boucaniers hunted the wild 
 cattle merely for their hides, another class speared 
 
I |s THE STORIED WEST tNDlES 
 
 the wild boars ;m<l pigs for their meat, which they 
 salted flown for provisions. While in the forests they 
 lived and hunted in pairs, dwelt in rude huts, or 
 ajoupas, ;ind became almost as shaggy and uncouth 
 as the beasts whose lives they sought. 
 
 A second class of these men stayed at home and 
 cultivated the soil, and both classes Labored for the 
 support of a third, the spoils of which each shared. 
 The men of this third class went to sen in long boats, 
 which they made from timber of the island, and 
 which the Dutch buccaneers called flei-botes, or 
 frei-botes; hence I heir appellation of filibusters, or 
 freebooters. When at last these " brethren of the 
 sea," variously termed buccaneers and freebooters, 
 saw that it was much easier to take a Spanish ship 
 or two than to painfully pursue the wild hulls of 
 Haiti, they adopted their chosen calling with a zest 
 horn of honest conviction in its manifold advantages. 
 Peter the Great seems to have been satisfied with 
 liis capture of the galleon and sailed for France, leav- 
 ing the buccaneers leaderless until another French- 
 man, named Lolonnois, took upon himself the com- 
 mand. Until this time the buccaneers had refrained 
 from unnecessary bloodshed, contenting' themselves 
 with the vast plunder they obtained from the ships; 
 but Lolonnois had already been a captive among 
 the Spaniards, and had experienced their cruelties, 
 so he murdered mainly for revenge. Soon after his 
 arrival at Tortuga he fell in with a vessel sent out 
 in pursuit of him, and, backed valiantly by his cour- 
 ageous buccaneers, he attacked and took it. After 
 having gained the deck and driven the sailors below, 
 
BUCCANEERS AXI; TREASURE SEEKERS 140 
 
 be -rood at the hatchway and smote off the heads of 
 the ill-fated Spaniards as they came up, drinking 
 their lifeblood as it. spouted from their decapitated 
 trunks! 
 
 One of the first of his captures was in the Gulf of 
 Florida, where a Spanish galleon laden with silver 
 had been sunk in a storm. The Spaniard-; of Cuba 
 had recovered three hundred thousand dollars' worth 
 of the .silver, which they had stored away in huts on 
 a desolate cay. The sea rover- surprised the guard 
 they had placed over this treasure, murdered some, 
 drove away the rest, and carried off the spoils. As 
 they w(;r(; sailing home to Tortuga they fell in with a 
 ship Laden with cochineal, indigo, and silver, from 
 which was obtained plunder to the value of sixty 
 thousand dollars. Then, for the second or third time, 
 the beach at Treasure Cove, in Tortuga, was the scene 
 of revelry and debauchery, which lasted until the 
 wretches felt the necessity of setting forth again to 
 replenish their exhausted stores. 
 
 And so it went for quite a century. Tortuga 
 was the chosen resort of piratical hand-: no sooner 
 would one be driven out or exterminated than an- 
 other would take possession under an equally brave 
 and ready leader. In 1638, eight year- after the 
 first buccaneer settlement here, the Spaniards fell 
 upon the stay-at-homes and murdered every one, 
 so that when the freebooters returned from the sea 
 it was to find only corpses and ruin-;. Then a French 
 captain and engineer, Le Va--eur, built a fort on the 
 top of a high rock that commanded the port, to which 
 an attacking party could only approach in single file. 
 
150 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 This the buccaneers held for many years, and bade 
 defiance to the strongest forces sent out against them 
 by the King of Spain ; save on one occasion, when the 
 Spaniards took and kept it for a short time, though 
 it was eventually retaken and its garrison sent to 
 Cuba. 
 
 It is known that during the successive occupancies 
 of Tortuga by the various pirate bands great treas- 
 ure was hidden away in the forest, and in the caves 
 with which the island abounds. Now and again the 
 present cultivators of Tortuga find coins of ancient 
 date, fragments of gold chains, and pieces of quaint 
 jewelry, cast up by the waves or revealed by the shift- 
 ing sands. It was not without reason that the only 
 harbor of the buccaneers was called Treasure Cove, 
 nor for nothing that they dug the deep caves 
 deeper, hollowing out lateral tunnels and blasting 
 holes beneath the frowning cliffs. 
 
 The island now belongs to Haiti, the inhabitants 
 of which have not the requisite sagacity to conduct 
 an intelligent search for the long-buried treasures; 
 and as they resent the intrusion of foreigners, it is 
 probable that the buccaneers' spoils will remain an 
 unknown quantity for many years to come. Treasure 
 Cove is now silent, desolate, and only occasionally 
 visited by negroes, whose ancestors, perchance, served 
 the buccaneers as slaves, and may have assisted in a 
 menial capacity at some of those riotous revels at 
 which hogsheads of wine were opened and stood in 
 the street for all who passed to drink therefrom. 
 
 Besides the buccaneers mentioned as leaders, 
 there were others who acquired unenviable fame, 
 
BUCCANEERS AXD TEEA-"?-: 9EEKEBS 151 
 
 among them one Moi a an, who was sub- 
 
 entry knighted by Charles II and gov- 
 
 ernor of Jamaica. Although " Sir Henry " Morgan 
 a boon companion of the bncea and acquired 
 
 . eat wealth by murder and king of 
 
 nish cities and torture of men and won. fei 
 when raised to distinction of another sort was most 
 re upon his former comrades. The bucear. 
 a body of men banded for piracy may be said to 
 have pa- ay with the seventeenth century, and 
 
 after them came the pirates, who plundered in- 
 iminately. serving all alike. 
 
 We have had a glimpse of tl. 
 the Spaniards in transit from America; but, gTeatly 
 as the Spanish ships suffered from the buc< 
 they lost infinitely more through storm and hurricane. 
 
 to these the vessels that were sunk thr< 
 faulty navigation, by being run on reefs 
 and we shall find that Spain parted with mill: 
 every year she v g ged in carryir. g ti re from 
 
 the Xew "World to the OlcL 
 
 It is hardly too much to say that nearly e 
 island in the Caribbean Sea. particularly Cuba, the 
 Isle of Pines, Jamaica, and BSspaniola. is girdled 
 with Spanish wi staining as yet . i vered 
 
 millions and millions in gold and silver. We 
 not space U. 'be them all; but in the year 
 
 . ^hile the buccaneers were in the heyday of 
 their glory, a rich priz matched from under 
 
 their very -. as it were. 
 
 "Within a few hundred miles of Tortuga Island, a 
 
152 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 native of New England, Captain William Phipps, re- 
 covered more than a million dollars from a sunken 
 galleon. From a quaint biography by his renowned 
 contemporary, Cotton Mather, we learn that our hero 
 was horn in 1650, and that as a young man he went 
 to Boston, where he married. " lie would frequently 
 lei I his wife (hat he should yet he the captain of a 
 kino's ship, . . . and that he should he the owner of 
 a fair brick house in the Green Lane of North Bos- 
 ton. ... By the year 1683, indeed, he became the 
 captain of a king's ship, and arrived back at New 
 England commander of the Algier Kose, a frigate of 
 eighteen guns and ninety-five men. . . . He sailed 
 for the West Indies, where he had advice of a Span- 
 ish wreck wherein was lost a mighty treasure. Hav- 
 ing landed at a Spanish island to careen his ship, his 
 men mutinied; but he quelled the mutiny, and on 
 arriving at Jamaica he turned them off. . . . 
 
 " Now, with a small company of other men, he 
 sailed from thence to Hispaniola, where by the policy 
 of his address he fished out of a very old Spaniard 
 a little advice about the true spot where lay the 
 wreck which he had hitherto been seeking — that it 
 was upon a reef of shoals a few leagues to the north- 
 ward of Port de la Plata [Puerto Plata], in Hispa- 
 niola. And at length, prevailing upon the Duke of 
 Albemarle and some other persons of quality to fit 
 him out, he again set sail for the fishing ground 
 that had been so well baited half a hundred years 
 before. 
 
 " Arriving at Port de la Plata, he made a stout 
 canoe of a stately cotton tree, so large as to carry 
 
BUCCANEERS AND TREASURE SEEKERS 153 
 
 eight or ten oars, for the making of which periagua 
 (as the natives called it), with the same industry that 
 he did everything else, he employed his own hand and 
 adz, and endured no little hardship, lying abroad in 
 the woods many nights together. This periagua, with 
 the tender, being anchored at a place convenient kept 
 busking to and again, but could only discern a reef 
 of rising shoals thereabouts, called the Boilers, which, 
 rising to be within two or three feet of the surface of 
 the sea, were yet so steep that a ship striking them 
 would immediately sink down — who could say how 
 many fathom? — into the ocean. Here they could 
 get no pay for their long peeping into the Boilers. 
 Xevertheless, as they were upon their return one 
 day, one of the men, looking over the side of the 
 periagua into the calm water, espied a sea feather 
 growing, he judged, out of a rock: whereupon he 
 bade one of the Indians to dive and fetch this feather, 
 that they might carry home something with them, 
 and make at least as fair a triumph as Caligula. The 
 diver bringing up the feather, brought therewith a 
 surprising story: that he had perceived a number of 
 great guns in the water where he had found his 
 feather, the report of which great guns exceedingly 
 astoni.-hed the whole company, and at once turned 
 their despondencies for their ill success into assur- 
 ances that they had now lit upon the true spot of 
 ground which they had been looking for, in which 
 they were further confirmed when the Indian fetched 
 up a sow, as they styled it — or a lump of silver weigh- 
 ing perhaps two or three hundred pounds. 
 
 "Upon this they prudently buoyed the place, that 
 
154 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 they might readily find it again, and then went back 
 unto their captain, whom for a while they distressed 
 with bad news, nothing but bad news. Neverthe- 
 less, they so slipped the ' sow ' of silver on one side 
 under the table that when he should look that way 
 he should see that odd thing before him. At last 
 he saw it, and cried out with some agony : ( Why, 
 what is this? Whence comes this? ' And then, with 
 changed countenances, they told him when and how 
 they got it. 
 
 ' Then/ said he, ' thanks be to God, we are 
 made! ' . . . And so away they went, all hands to 
 
 Old Spanish swords. 
 
 work, and most happily they first fell upon that room 
 in the wreck where the bullion had been stored up, 
 and they so prospered in their new fishery that in a 
 little while they had, without the loss of any man's 
 life, brought up thirty-two tuns of silver, for it was 
 now come to measuring silver by tuns! 
 
 " But the Spanish wreck, to which Sir William 
 had made his first good voyage, was not the only nor 
 the richest wreck that he knew to be lying under the 
 water. He knew particularly where lay the ship 
 in which Governor Bobadilla was cast away, aboard 
 which there was, as Peter Martyr says, an entire 
 
BUCCANEERS AND TREASURE SEEKERS 155 
 
 table of gold of three thousand three hundred and 
 ten pounds' weight. . . . 
 
 " And thou rich table with Bo'dilla lost 
 In the fair Eden of our Spanish coast, 
 In weight three thousand and three hundred pounds, 
 But of pure, massy gold : lye thou, not found ; 
 Safe, since he's laid under the earth asleep, 
 Who learnt where thou dost under water keep." * 
 
 * The Magnalia Christi Americana, from which this account 
 was taken, was published in 1702, and as Sir William Phipps had 
 then been dead eight years, in very truth his eulogist entitles these 
 verses his elegy. 
 
 12 
 
CHAPTEK XIII 
 
 THE CONQUEST OF HAITI 
 
 Before we leave Hispaniola let us glance at the 
 western portion of the island, known to the natives 
 as Haiti, or the Highland, which, as it yielded but 
 little gold, was early abandoned by the Spaniards. 
 After wresting from the peaceful aborigines all the 
 precious metal they possessed, and wringing from 
 them all they could dig from the mines and sift 
 from the river sands (having exterminated the In- 
 dians in the process), they practically deserted the 
 island for the richer fields of Cuba, Mexico, and the 
 American Main. 
 
 Haiti, with its magnificent mountain ranges, its 
 deep and capacious harbors, its hills and valleys 
 clothed in perpetual verdure nourished by the perfec- 
 tion of tropical climates, Avas a veritable Eden; yet, 
 deprived of its original inhabitants, for more than 
 a century it was practically tenantless. Then the 
 famed buccaneers, who had made their headquarters 
 on the adjacent island of Tortuga, attracted by its 
 beauty and fertility, gave over for the greater part 
 their precarious occupation of seeking Spanish gal- 
 leons, and took possession of the neglected lands. At 
 first individuals, then groups and companies, settled 
 there, and in 1664, during the reign of Louis XI V 
 156 
 
THE CONQUEST OF HAITI 15f 
 
 of France, a chartered company of adventurers laid 
 claim to the colony, and, nnder a Frenchman named 
 D'Ogeron,nourishing settlements were established on 
 the larger island. 
 
 They were so strong in 1669 that they sent a 
 force to invade the Spanish part of the island, took 
 the city of Santiago de los Caballeros, and held it 
 until ransomed. The French and Spanish settlers 
 were at war for many years, and in 1691 the latter 
 sacked and burned the town of Griiarico, or Cape 
 Haitien, which a hundred years later was destined 
 to be the scene of terrible outrages. 
 
 By the Peace of Ryswick, 1697, the French were 
 confirmed in their colonial claims, and from that time 
 until the outbreak of the Revolution Haiti made 
 great material progress. It was at the height of its 
 prosperity from 1750 to 1789: marshes had been 
 drained, forests cleared for the planting of coffee, 
 roads opened along the coast and far into the moun- 
 tain valleys, and handsome villas built upon the hills 
 and headlands; and in the cities, as at Port au Prince 
 and Cape Haitien, churches, hospitals, aqueducts and 
 fountains, had been constructed. These products of 
 skill and refinement, however, had been founded on 
 slavery; and though the slaves were in the main 
 kindly treated, yet their masters held over them abso- 
 lute power of life and death. Since 1685 they had 
 been governed under the provisions of the Code Noir 
 of Louis XIV, which edict provided for their humane 
 treatment, though there were frequent examples of 
 terrible cruelty. 
 
 We find, in the third quarter of the eighteenth 
 
158 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 century, nearly half a million black slaves in Haiti, 
 while at the same time the whites numbered less 
 than forty thousand and the free people of color 
 thirty thousand — an ominous disparity, of which the 
 negroes in bondage were becoming aware. Still, 
 the blacks might have continued submissive for years 
 to come had it not been for the turn of events in 
 France. In May, 1789, at the assembling of the 
 States General, the whites, the ruling people of 
 Haiti, were loyal to France and her king. At the 
 breaking out of the Revolution public sentiment 
 was divided; but when the Assembly proclaimed 
 that not only the white inhabitants of France 
 and Haiti, but also the colored and black, were en- 
 titled to freedom and a voice in affairs, the colony 
 was in a ferment. The whites, who had hitherto 
 monopolized all power and official position, forswore 
 their allegiance to the mother country and in ecstasy 
 of rage trampled upon her flag. Encouraged by 
 the amis des noirs, or French friends of the blacks, 
 a young man of color, named Vincent Oge, then re- 
 siding in Paris, and whose mother owned property in 
 Haiti, sailed for the island with arms and stores in 
 October, 1790, and led an expedition against the 
 planters of the north coast, but was defeated and 
 broken on the wheel. This was the beginning of a 
 veritable reign of terror, rivaling that which soon 
 after existed in France, both precipitated by the Revo- 
 lution. When that archfiend Robespierre learned of 
 the opposition in Haiti to the declared principles of 
 the Assembly, he exclaimed : " Perish the colonies, 
 then, rather than depart, in the case of our colored 
 
THE CONQUEST OF HAITI 159 
 
 brethren, from these universal principles of liberty 
 and equality which it is onr glory to have laid down ! " 
 
 The revolution in Haiti may be classed under 
 three distinct divisions: the first was the revolt of 
 the whites against the edict of universal freedom 
 proclaimed by the National Assembly at Paris; the 
 second the mulatto outbreak; the third, the long- 
 dreaded uprising of the blacks, which took place on 
 the night of August 21, 1791. It was on a planta- 
 tion called Noe, in the parish of Acul, about nine 
 miles from Cape Haitien, that the flood so long ex- 
 pected was let loose, and the black barbarians poured 
 forth to glut their rage in blood and destruction. 
 They came down from the mountains on every side, 
 like an inundation, committing horrible atrocities on 
 the way, one band of miscreants carrying as its stand- 
 ard the body of a white infant impaled on a pike. 
 They swept the hills and mountains with fire and 
 sword, burning dwellings and cane fields, massacring 
 all whites who fell into their hands; and the fury 
 of this horrid rabble host was only spent after more 
 than two thousand men, women, and children had 
 fallen victims to their savagery and a thousand sugar 
 and coffee estates had been destroyed by fire. 
 
 All, or nearly all, the white residents of the in- 
 terior were killed — the elite of the island; but in 
 the cities they rallied after the first shock, and final- 
 ly, with the assistance of the colored people, repulsed 
 the savage mountaineers. The horrors of that up- 
 rising exceed belief; they outrage the sensibilities of 
 humanity. 
 
 Later on, when the colored people imagined that 
 
160 
 
 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 the whites had betrayed them, they allied themselves 
 with the blacks, and a veritable war of extermina- 
 tion was conducted. All the planters were massacred 
 or compelled to emigrate and the country districts 
 were given over entirely to the blacks, in whose; pos- 
 session they have since remained. In the mountain 
 
 valleys of Haiti darkness and desolation yet envelop 
 the habitations of semisavage negroes, as ignorant and 
 paganish as their African ancestors, devoted to ser- 
 pent worship and the cannibal practices of the 
 voodoo. 
 
 Anarchy, bloodshed, and dissolution reigned su- 
 preme in Haiti until 1798, the natives, the French, 
 and the English (who had come to the assistance of 
 the planters) being engaged in insensate warfare. 
 
THE CONQUEST OF HAITI 161 
 
 Then out of the chaos of strife was evolved a leader 
 for the blacks, the son of an African chief who had 
 
 >een taken in war and sold into slavery. He was born 
 in 1743, on a plantation near Cape Haitien owned by 
 the Count de Breda, and his name was int. 
 
 He had taught himself reading, writing, a little 
 
 a anetry, and Latin, and as he became . he 
 
 was promoted from the field to the position of coach- 
 man by the count 
 
 When the revolt of 171H occurred, and the black 
 mof- _ the country for vietir: 
 
 it, who was devoted to the ?er, hid him and 
 
 his family in the 1 taking food to them at the 
 
 risk of his life, and eventually guiding them to the 
 
 st, whence they escaped to the Unite*; 
 whither he sent them remittances from the plantation 
 so long as it yielded anything. After their flight, hav- 
 ing no longer any ties to bind him to the whites, he 
 joined the negro bands, among whom his knowle g 
 r -ially of the native plants and medicines and 
 !1 at surgery, made him The first 
 
 revolt was led by a gigantic negro named Bouekman, 
 but thi- fd by three other 
 
 blacks, Jean Fr n, and Jeannot. Their 
 
 character may be inferred from the dreadful acts im- 
 puted to the last named, wl. to bathe 
 his hands in the blood of his white victims also, and 
 
 xclaiming: " Oh, my friends, ho 
 how good, is this white -blood! Let u* take full 
 draughts of it while we may ' 
 
 a dually Tonssaint, who was known as L ? Ou ver- 
 ture, or The Opener, because he had opened a 
 
162 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 way to victory and peace, succeeded to the chief 
 command, and the ferocity of the negroes was some- 
 what mitigated. Declaring himself lieutenant gov- 
 ernor of the colony, he resolved to effect a political 
 severance from France; but he wrote the Directory: 
 " I guaranty, on my personal responsibility, the 
 orderly behavior and the good will to France of my 
 brethren, the blacks." At the same time he sent 
 two of his sons, virtually hostages, to be educated at 
 Paris; he kept his pledges, peace prevailed, the Brit- 
 ish were finally expelled in 1798, and an insurrec- 
 tion of the disaffected mulattoes was quelled. 
 
 Then he bent all his energies to the regeneration 
 of Haiti, and he accomplished what no other leader 
 had been able to do: the complete pacification of the 
 island. His army was rigidly disciplined, agricul- 
 ture was encouraged, churches re-established, schools 
 opened, and strict justice meted out to all. Every 
 ignorant black under him desired and expected a 
 high appointment; but his politic answers to their 
 appeals generally turned them aside. For instance, 
 when an illiterate negro demanded a judicial position, 
 Toussaint replied, " Ah, yes, you would make an ad- 
 mirable magistrate. Of course you understand Latin. 
 No? That is indeed unfortunate, for you know it is 
 absolutely indispensable! " 
 
 Toussaint had shown himself not less brave than 
 wise and politic ; as, for example, in putting down the 
 insurrection of the mulatto insurgent Rigaud. Fall- 
 ing into an ambuscade in the mountains near Port de 
 Paix, a discharge of musketry sent a shower of balls 
 around him, and his private physician fell dead at 
 
THE CONQUEST OP HAITI 163 
 
 his feet; a plume of feathers in his chapeau was shot 
 away, and shortly after that his coachman was killed 
 in a narrow pass. Yet he seemed, like Xapoleon, to 
 bear a charmed life until his work was done; then 
 he fell by indirect attack. In the last insurrection 
 the negro was pitted mainly against the mulatto, in 
 whose yeins mingled the blood of the white and the 
 black; but this blood, instead of cementing their in- 
 terests and friendship, bore in its current the ele- 
 ments of suspicion, envy, hatred, and detestation. 
 
 At the beginning of this terrible war there were 
 half a million blacks and not more than seventy 
 thousand whites and mulattoes. Toussaint used to 
 convey this fact most forcibly to his followers by 
 filling a glass with grains of black maize among 
 which were scattered a few grains of white. " You 
 are the black maize," he would say; " the others are 
 the white." Then he shook the glass. " Where are 
 the white grains now?" he exclaimed exultantly. 
 " Lo, they have disappeared! " 
 
 In the last year of the eighteenth century 
 peace and prosperity were apparently restored to 
 unfortunate Haiti, and it would seem as though they 
 might continue indefinitely, or at least during the 
 lifetime of Toussaint. At this time, however, he 
 came into collision with the insatiate Bonaparte, to 
 whom, having completely pacified the island, he 
 had sent two letters, addressed. " The First of the 
 Blacks to the First of the Whites," but which the 
 latter did not deign to answer. Meanwhile, Bona- 
 parte had returned from Egypt and overturned the 
 Directorv; he was then on his pinnacle, and would 
 
Mil 
 
 Till': STORIED WiiST INIHTCH 
 
 share in I 'g wiili qo ni:iii, l»hirk or white, The 
 
 acti 1 of Ti "i .mm 1 were looked upon as presumptuous) 
 and when the constitution drafted by hi oounoil 
 arrived, in May, i s <><>, by which the colony was i" 
 hr virtually independent, l>>ii under the guardian 
 
 ■ Inn oi France, witli 1 li«' liberator as go vor 'general 
 
 for li ic, In Pate warn sealed, The First ( tonsul's 
 only answer was the sending oi p floel oi sixty ships 
 and thirty tlionsand men, commanded by General 
 Leelero, Pauline Bonaparte's husband, Pauline her 
 ell was wiili the general, and Napoleons enemies 
 have more than hinted thai il was as much to rid 
 himseJ i of hi import unate ister and her husband of 
 low degree as bo t'econouer [Iaiti, thai he sonl them 
 on 1 Ins expedition I 
 
 [laving overcome :ill opposition ;ii home, Tons 
 .mil nc\! proceeded to :i<l<l to [Iaiti thai portion 
 known as Santo Domingo, and with ten thousand men 
 ho entered the capital city on the 2d of January, 
 1801, When the governor of Santo Domingo handed 
 him the keys of the city, Toussainl said solemnly, lk I 
 nccepl them in the uame of the French Republic 5 " 
 so there was no occasion or excuse for Bonaparte 
 to proceed againsl him as :i rebellious ohiefj yel one 
 vear from thai time, or in January, L802, the sliips 
 <A' Franoe were oil the north ooasl of [lispaniola, 
 nnd their men and armamenl were being landed, 
 Anticipating the favorable conclusion of the Peace 
 of Aniifii:;, l>\ which he found his hands free again, 
 with no war in Europe i<> engage his armies, Bona 
 parte availed himself <>f the opportunity for punish 
 oi" one whom he ohose i<» regard as :i rebel against 
 
THE 's.'V.h /] Of HAITI ]<;;, 
 
 bin authority J', vai probably the effect that a free 
 colony like that of Haiti vould have upon the •• 
 holding colonic &i France that induced Bonaparte 
 to tend rmt thin formidable armament, and to >acri 
 fiee iiijon the altar of hi* policy and ambition* the 
 
 of the I 1 lie, of the A Ipa, and of the Rhi 
 With 1 ,':'■!'■.■■ '■•. in-, beautiful vife, vent out 
 
 ■ ral officer*, >uch a* liocharnboa i, liigaud, Petie 
 ill former opponent* and enemies of 
 Tou**aint, of vhom the two la*t named vere destined 
 r?eed him in the government of the inland* 
 To oppose the ti fcteran* of Napoleon, men 
 
 i bad been accn rtomod to under the m 
 
 - e, I o aint bail bet v< ■ ■■■ i ■ ' ■■' n and t ■ ■ 
 thousand whiter i onl J.' arning that the & 
 
 rnbarking a portion of il al the Ba / 
 
 be made in i vay thither to ■<■'■ for inn. 
 
 Wlf ■■ ■ , ■ :.'!, If uH' //ill, Q -,!./, ,U Ji 
 
 ment at vhat be beheld imi?d to hi i offt i 
 
 : ' We are lo*t! A II F ranee i i coming to in rade our 
 pooi " 'I I '• eitj of Banto Dom itch bad 
 
 been left in charge of To brother, Paul, loon 
 
 fell into the band* of the French, and landing 
 effected at Fort Dauphin, at Port an Prince, and at 
 Oape llaitien Under Tou**aint vere four bi 
 
 f»ral •; ( ''■< Laplume, I >> ■ ■■■ ' 
 
 tophe, of yhom the k ■». t vo h I ai 
 
 unique '.■■ m rement '<f Haitian inde 
 
 pendence, f/hri*tophc, a native of the bland of Q 
 nada, an ei k, of majettic presence 
 
 and to vering ambitic rmmand at tin I 
 
 and vhen b ■ nt bim a rommon i to mrrender 
 
L$6 rHE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 ho replied to the messenger: " Go bell your general 
 that the French shall march here only over ashes, 
 and that the ground shall burn beneath their feet! 
 lie \\ ;i> true to his word, for, when threatened by 
 sea and by land, and ho found defense impossible, be 
 set fire to the city and retreated to the mountain 
 fastnesses, carrving two thousand whites as prisoners, 
 When Toussaint reached the region of the Cape, he 
 was met by multitudes of fugitives, be saw the city 
 in ashes, and, recognizing that events bad hurried 
 manors beyond his control, be was overwhelmed with 
 despair and grief, 
 
 Soon all the ports were in possession oi the 
 French, but the blacks were safe from direct attack 
 in the mountain strongholds. Unassisted, neither 
 side could prevail against the other, so the French 
 commander had recourse to strategy. He had 
 
 brought with him Toussaiut's two sous, to whom 
 
 Bonaparte had given an interview on the eve of 
 their departure, M Your father is a groat man/' he 
 had said to them, c< and has rendered many a service 
 to France, Toll him 1 say so. and toll him not to 
 believe I have any hostile intention against the 
 island. The troops I send are not designed to tight 
 the natives, but to increase their strength, and the 
 man I have appointed to command is my own brother- 
 in-law ! 
 
 These sons Leclerc now sour to Toussaint, with 
 a demand that ho come to him and yield submis- 
 sion, or send his children back as actual hostages, 
 Tho interview between sons and parents was most 
 affecting, and for a time Toussaint was inclined to 
 
THE CONQUEST OF HAITI 
 
 167 
 
 accept the terms, but finally lie said : " I can not ! 
 The First Consul offers me peace, yet his general no 
 sooner arrives than he rushes into war. No; my 
 country demands my first consideration. Take back 
 
 my sons 
 
 He intrenched his force at the fort of 
 
 Crete a Pierrot, and against him marched a French 
 army of twenty 
 thousand men 
 under Kocham- 
 beau, whom he 
 at first outgen- 
 eraled and de- 
 feated with se- 
 vere loss; but, 
 not receiving 
 the assistance he 
 had expected 
 from his subor- 
 dinates, he was 
 compelled to re- 
 treat. Soon, 
 through convic- 
 tion that fur- 
 ther resistance 
 would be hope- 
 less and being offered advantageous terms by Leclerc, 
 he renounced his command and declared: "I accept 
 everything which is favorable for the people and for 
 the army; as for myself, I wish to live in retirement." 
 He had fought to retain Haiti for France, he had 
 fought against French pretensions; his only thought 
 was for his country. 
 
 Toussaint L'Ouverture. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 BLACK KINGS AND EMPERORS 
 
 Toussaint retired to his plantation near the Cape, 
 and the island was at peace. But Bonaparte, at a 
 distance, could not know that Toussaint's was the 
 only will that held the blacks in restraint, and sent 
 orders to Leclerc for his arrest and deportation to 
 France. In the dead of night the negro chief was 
 dragged from his bed, two blacks who attempted to 
 defend him being killed on the spot, and taken on 
 board a man-of-war, which at once set sail. Arrived 
 in France, by orders of Napoleon he was separated 
 from his wife and children and confined in a dreary 
 castle on the northern frontier. This was in June, 
 1802; one morning in the April following Tous- 
 saint L'Ouverture was found by his jailer cold in 
 death. Thus miserably perished the one great patriot 
 of Haiti, a victim of Bonaparte's ambition. He died 
 in poverty, having accumulated but little wealth, 
 though with every opportunity for unlimited acquisi- 
 tion. Still, he had maintained a certain magnificence 
 of surroundings and official state, and Bonaparte be- 
 lieved he had vast treasure concealed in the island. 
 When he sent spies to interrogate him, however, 
 Toussaint sadly said, " No; the treasures which you 
 168 
 
BLACK KINGS AND EMPERORS 169 
 
 seek are not those I have lost! " — meaning his wife, 
 children, and liberty. 
 
 The deportation of Tonssaint was soon recognized 
 as a fatal error; for the blacks, excited and alarmed 
 and no longer having any one to check them, at once 
 flew to arms. The mountaineers again invaded the 
 coast country, led by a ferocious negro, who fought 
 half naked, his only insignia of authority being a 
 pair of epaulets tied to his brawny shoulders. He 
 soon fell, but not before the revolt had spread over 
 the whole island. The great chiefs Dessalines and 
 Christophe were at the outset sullenly obedient to 
 Leclerc, even pursuing and killing bodies of rebel- 
 lious blacks. They could well afford to be patient, for 
 they now had a terrible ally in yellow fever, which 
 had attacked the unacclimated Europeans and was 
 reaping a dreadful harvest of death. In a short time 
 thousands of soldiers perished, including fifteen hun- 
 dred officers, many of them famous veterans of Na- 
 poleon's Continental wars. The character of the sur- 
 vivors was changed completely, gloom, ferocity, and 
 recklessness taking the place of feelings more in ac- 
 cord with their usual bearing. When at last Petion 
 and Clervaux threw off their allegiance, spiked the 
 guns of the fort at the Cape and took to the hills, the 
 French garrison was but a few hundred strong. Each 
 side was suspicious of the other, and with good reason. 
 At a banquet given by Leclerc one night the guests 
 were thrown into confusion and alarm by the surly 
 Christophe, who, when pressed by a French officer to 
 drink a glass of wine he had poured out for him, 
 suspecting it might be poisoned, shouted : " Dost 
 
170 
 
 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 know, thou little white thing, that if I had drunk the 
 wine which thou pouredst out I should have desired 
 to drink thy blood and that of thy general ! " 
 
 A few days later, indeed, he and Dessalines were 
 investing the city of the Cape with their black sol- 
 diers, and the ill- 
 fated Leclerc, shut 
 up within the 
 walls, unable to 
 escape by sea be- 
 cause of the loss of 
 his sailors by the 
 plague, himself 
 succumbed to the 
 disease in Novem- 
 ber, and soon ex- 
 pired. The be- 
 reaved Pauline 
 found sailors 
 enough to take 
 her to France, and 
 on arrival at Paris 
 was tenderly em- 
 braced by her 
 brother, to whom 
 she told the terrible story of defeat and annihilation. 
 Napoleon listened in silence, and then said: " Here, 
 then, is all that remains of my fine army: the body of a 
 brother-in-law, of a general, my right arm, a handful 
 of dust. All has perished, all will perish! Fatal con- 
 quest! Cursed land! Perfidious colonists! A wretched 
 slave in revolt ! These are the cause of so many evils." 
 
 General Jean Jacques Dessalines. 
 
BLACK KINGS AND EMPERORS 171 
 
 Should lie not rather have said: " Perfidious 
 Bonaparte, who sent away so many brave warriors, 
 that they might not throw their bayonets across the 
 road to the imperial throne, whither he was urged 
 by his insatiate desires " ? 
 
 The command of the French now devolved upon 
 General Rochambeau, the deformed, degenerate son 
 of an illustrious sire who had won glorious laurels 
 in behalf of American independence. Having re- 
 ceived re-enforcements enough to bring the number 
 of his troops up to twenty thousand, he spared neither 
 sex nor age in the pursuit of his one purpose — to 
 completely subjugate the blacks. Four hundred cap- 
 tives, it is said, were drowned by his orders, and 
 five hundred more shot and cast into a great pit, the 
 wounded with the dead. To avenge this slaughter 
 of his countrymen, Dessalines took as many French 
 soldiers whom he had captured and hung them on 
 gibbets in sight of their former companions-in-arms. 
 Their exploits in Europe, in praise of which the whole 
 world rang, availed not to save them from ignomini- 
 ous deaths at the hands of black barbarians! 
 
 Passion, revenge, lust, and cruelty ran riot over 
 the land, and at last, to crown his infamies, Rocham- 
 beau sent to Cuba for Spanish bloodhounds. Three 
 hundred years before, these loathsome companions of 
 degenerate man had been employed by the Spaniards 
 to destroy the inoffensive Indians of this same island, 
 where, sad to relate, a soldier of that nation which has 
 often aimed to lead in modern civilization appeals to 
 the same inhuman means for gratifying his ferocious 
 instincts! An amphitheater was improvised in the 
 13 
 
172 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 court of a convent, and as an experiment the savage 
 brutes were turned loose upon black men bound to 
 posts, whom they tore to pieces and devoured, amid 
 the acclamations of approving audiences, composed of 
 French " ladies and gentlemen." It is not strange 
 that the half-civilized blacks should have aimed at 
 retributive cruelty, of which many instances might be 
 cited; but one will suffice. The wife of Toussaint's 
 brother, Paul, having been drowned by the French, 
 and without reason, except from insensate revenge, 
 he became mad from grief, and the innocent passen- 
 gers of a French ship that was wrecked on the coast 
 falling into his hands, he slaughtered them all in front 
 of the city gate, " to the manes of his beloved part- 
 ner! " 
 
 But the time came when Bonaparte could no 
 longer send re-enforcements to fill the gaps death had 
 caused in the ranks of his soldiers so far distant from 
 France. Owing to the breaking out of war between 
 England and France in November, 1803, British 
 ships came to blockade Roehambeau at the Cape; and 
 he was hemmed in between white and black foes. 
 Even then he clung to the hope of rescue, and held 
 out until all his provisions were consumed. Garrison 
 and citizens were reduced to eating horse and mule 
 meat, even the very dogs that had been imported to 
 capture and maim the blacks were killed and eaten! 
 The outer works were carried by the islanders, and 
 they began to prepare hot shot to sink the ships. 
 Then Roehambeau, making a virtue of necessity, sur- 
 rendered to the British, who thus snatched eight thou- 
 sand prisoners of war from the very fangs of the rag- 
 
BLACK KINGS AND EMPERORS 173 
 
 ing, vengeful Dessalines. There is no doubt as to 
 what their fate would have been had this monster 
 griped them, as exemplified in his massacres of the 
 defenseless French who were left behind. 
 
 "As they sailed from the island, Rochambeau and 
 his soldiers saw the tops of the mountains aglow with 
 fires. Aforetime the blaze had been kindled for war 
 and devastation; now the blacks lighted up the high- 
 lands in token of their joy. Freedom had been 
 wrested out of the hands of their foes. The dark 
 past was wholly gone; the future was radiant with 
 hope. i Freedom! Freedom! ' ran in joyous echoes 
 from mountain top to mountain top, till the whole 
 island shouted ' Freedom! ' Thus ended that deplor- 
 able expedition. In less than two years sixty thou- 
 sand persons had fallen; fifteen hundred were offi- 
 cers of superior rank, eight hundred were medical 
 men who had given their lives, thirty-three thousand 
 soldiers, of whom not a sixth perished in battle. The 
 attempt at subjugation cost the blacks more than 
 twelve thousand men. of whom about four thousand 
 found death at the hands of executioners." 
 
 On the departure of the French the negro chiefs 
 again proclaimed the independence of the island " in 
 the name of the black people and men of color," and 
 on the first day of January, 1804, they and the gen- 
 erals of the army, in the name of the people, took 
 a solemn oath to renounce France forever, and to 
 die rather than submit to her domination. But the 
 Haitians had acquired neither freedom nor liberty; 
 only a change of masters! 
 
 Jean Jacques Dessalines was named governor 
 
171 
 
 Til K STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 genera] for life, with power to enact laws, to declare 
 peace <>r war, and to nominate his successor. No 
 sooner was lie firmly seated than, despite his promises 
 and proclamations to the contrary, he proceeded to 
 wreak Ids vengeance on the lew French remaining, 
 and nearly all were murdered. Says an unfortunate 
 resident of the ( !ape at that time: tk That night | the 
 20th of April, lso I | was a veritable night of hor 
 rors. At short intervals we could hear the ax and 
 pick thundering at the door of some devoted neighbor 
 and soon forcing it. Piercing shrieks immediately 
 
 ensued, followed by ;i inosl. expressive silence. The 
 
 next moment the military party were proceeding to 
 some oilier house, there to renew their work of 
 death. 
 
 1 There w;is one act in this terrible tragedy which 
 stamps llie conduct of the monster Dessalines with 
 the character <d" most flagrant perfidy as well as of 
 cruelty, lie had not been able to find all his pur- 
 posed victims, and so issued an announcement that 
 his vengeance was satisfied, ;ind that if those who 
 remained would appear on the parade grounds on 
 :i certain day they would receive tickets that would 
 insure them perfect security. Depending upon this 
 offer of amnesty they came forth tremblingly from 
 their hiding places, and appeared as directed, but 
 
 had no SOOner done so than they were seized and 
 
 led to execution. 'The slaughter was terrible, and 
 the rivulet which runs through the town was literally 
 rod with their blood! " 
 
 In a bombastic proclamation Dessalines claimed 
 all the " glory " of this infamous deed; " At length/' 
 
BLACK KINGS AND EMPERORS 175 
 
 be said, " the hour of vengeance has arrived, and the 
 implacable enemies of the rights of man have suf- 
 fered the punishment due to their crimes! . . . 5Tes, 
 we have rendered to those real cannibals war for war, 
 crime for crime, outrage for outrage. V'--. I bave 
 saved my country; I have avenged America- The 
 avowal I make, in the face of earth and heaven, con- 
 stitutes my pride and glory! " 
 
 After a futile expedition into Santo Domingo, 
 lie returned and ordered a revision of the constitu- 
 tion, by which this u avenger and deliverer of his 
 fellow-citizens " was created a first magistrate, to 
 be called " His Majesty the Emperor," and his " au- 
 gust spouse " (the former mistress of a French 
 planter) was declared " Empress." A constitution 
 was proclaimed; all properties of the whites were de- 
 clared confiscated to the state; labor was nol compul- 
 sory, and Haiti became the negroes' paradise. De 
 lines was the first black emperor in America, and, 
 like many another American, Ik- could " point with 
 pride" to the fact that he was self-made. At the 
 outbreak of the insurrection that made him promi- 
 nent be was slave to a negro named Dessalines, and 
 known merely as Jean Jacques. After he rose to 
 the throne he sought out his old master and made 
 him chief butler to his Majesty. WTien asked if lie 
 could not have given him a position more honor- 
 able, the emperor replied, " 5Tes, but nothing the old 
 man would have liked so well; for, while f have a 
 good cellar, yet I drink nothing but water; and he 
 can drink for ns both! " The emperor never learned 
 to read, but could sign his name after a fashion. He 
 
17G THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 employed a reader, however, and used to listen atten- 
 tively to such papers as were read to him, among 
 them Wilberforce's speeches against the slave trade. 
 He was fond of dress and ornament, and always took 
 a dancing master about with him, though he was 
 very awkward at an accomplishment in which most 
 blacks are so graceful. His reign was short-lived 
 after all, for his troops conspired against him in 
 L806, and cut him down while struggling to escape; 
 and though he had stipulated that "such children as 
 should be acknowledged by his Majesty " should be 
 known as " princes of the blood/' none of them 
 ever appeared to claim a right to the throne. 
 
 The second ruler over free Haiti was also a black 
 man, the redoubtable Henry Christophe, who had 
 set fire to the Cape when the French fleet first ap- 
 peared. He was a man of great military skill, brave 
 and determined, as all liis acts have shown. Created 
 " President and ( Jeneralissimo of the Military and 
 Naval Forces of the State of Haiti," it was declared 
 by the new constitution that all other titles for the 
 supreme executive were forever proscribed; yet in 
 181 l he was proclaimed king, under the name of 
 Henry I, and his consort queen. Then were en- 
 acted over again the buffoonery and burlesque of 
 royalty that had excited the ridicule of the world dur- 
 ing the previous " reign." With the establishment of 
 the throne, the council of state decreed that there 
 should be not only an " hereditary monarchy," but 
 also an "hereditary nobility" as well, composed of 
 all such distinguished persons as had rendered im- 
 portant services to their country, either in the magis- 
 
BLACK KINGS AND EMPERORS Iff 
 
 tracy or the army, or in the departments of litera- 
 ture and science. In literature or science it would 
 be hard to find, even at this day, any Haitian who 
 has distinguished himself; but the army supplied an 
 abundance of material for the " nobility/' and the 
 list includes, besides the " princes of the blood,' 7 three 
 " princes of the kingdom," eight dukes, twenty 
 counts, thirty-seven barons, and eleven chevaliers. 
 Then there were the " knights of Saint Henry," 
 and the first secretary of state was Comte de Limon- 
 ade, another high officer being styled the Due de Mar- 
 malade. The Comte de Limonade was " gifted with 
 the pen," and wrote many reams of fulsome procla- 
 mations for the edification of a waiting world. Here 
 is one of them, sent forth in the name of " King 
 Henry " : 
 
 " Free by right, and independent in fact, we will 
 never, no, never, renounce the blessings of liberty; 
 no, never will we consent to witness the subversion 
 of the edifice we have raised and cemented with our 
 blood; at least, without being buried beneath its 
 ruins. . . . King of a free people, a soldier by pro- 
 fession, we fear no war nor enemy. . . . We sol- 
 emnly declare that we will never become a party to 
 any treaty, or any condition, that shall compromise 
 the honor, the liberty, or the independence; of the 
 Haitian people. Faithful to our oath, we will rather 
 bury ourselves beneath the ruins of our country than 
 suffer the smallest infringement of our political 
 rights. 
 
 (liven at our palace of Sans Souci the 18th of 
 
 a /"< 
 
178 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 September, 1814, in the eleventh year of independ- 
 ence, and the fourth of our reign. 
 
 " (Signed) Henry. 
 " (By the King) The Comte de Limonade, 
 "•Secretary of State, Minister of Foreign Affairs." 
 
 King Henry possessed nine royal palaces and 
 eight royal chateaux, of which the Palais de Sans 
 Souci and the Chateau cles Delices de la Reine were 
 the most beautiful. He carried out Dessalines's plan 
 of defense adopted in the event of another invasion 
 by France. They had sufficient grounds for appre- 
 hending that the French would return to avenge 
 their atrocious massacres, in which event they re- 
 solved to abandon the coast at the first sign of the 
 enemy, and retreat to forts built in very strong posi- 
 tions in the interior. All the captured artillery, 
 which consisted chiefly of brass cannon in great abun- 
 dance, was removed to these hill forts, where vast 
 magazines of provisions and ammunition were also 
 collected. The lateral hills and the ravines intersect- 
 ing them were all cleared and planted with bananas, 
 yams, plantains, and other quick-growing plants pro- 
 ducing edible fruits and tubers; water was also pro- 
 vided in cisterns and by means of aqueducts: so that 
 the blacks could have held out for an indefinite 
 period, provisioned and intrenched as they were, in 
 these almost impregnable fastnesses. 
 
 Towering above the hill ranges back of Cape 
 Haitien, the visitor to that port may see a pyramidal 
 mountain, cloud-wreathed and lofty: the far-famed 
 La Ferriere, which is crowned by a fortress. I 
 
BLACK KINGS AND EMPERORS 
 
 179 
 
 once visited this vast fortress and the mined palace 
 of Sans Souci, which are respectively four and two 
 hours' ride from the Cape. Both were built by 
 orders of Christophe when he held the lives of his 
 sable subjects as of little account, and if he had pos- 
 sessed all the resources of modern civilization, I do 
 
 A court in Sans Souci. 
 
 not believe that either the stern majesty of the one 
 or the perfect beauty of the other could have been 
 exceeded. Crowning the leveled summit of a conical 
 hill, steep and hard to climb, the massive walls of the 
 fortress tower aloft to the height of a hundred feet, 
 surrounded by a wide and deep moat spanned by a 
 decaying drawbridge. Inside are vast galleries, one 
 above another, in which are still mounted more than 
 
180 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 two hundred cannon; for Christophe was determined 
 to construct a stronghold in this wilderness which 
 would withstand the attack of any enemy, even of 
 the great Napoleon. No attack was ever made upon 
 this great fortress, and it stands silent to-day, as it 
 has been since its construction. The hundreds of 
 grim cannon and mortars, however, are witnesses to 
 the sanguinary struggle that might have occurred 
 had a foreign foe again invaded the soil of Haiti. 
 
 In a most beautiful valley under the hills are 
 the remains of the Palais de Sans Souci, where 
 Haiti's first king held his court, and which was his 
 favorite place of residence. Here the roofless walls, 
 the choked fountains, the dimensions of vast halls, 
 the outbuildings and gardens overgrown with tropi- 
 cal plants, give evidence of the grandeur that once 
 waited on this savage sovereign. The view from the 
 esplanade is entrancing: over a vale filled with plants 
 of the tropics, the gardens and thatched huts of the 
 African natives. After his stronghold was com- 
 pleted, Christophe removed thither with all his treas- 
 ure, estimated at thirty million dollars, and there felt 
 so secure that, according to tradition, he defied even 
 the Almighty, one day during a thunderstorm dis- 
 charging his artillery to the din of the elements and 
 flashes of lightning. Within the fortress quadrangle 
 his dilapidated tomb is shown; and in the palace a 
 room where, at the approach of his mutinous guard, 
 he bade farewell to his family, and shot himself 
 through the head with a silver bullet. 
 
 Thus much for Christophe, that savage spirit, that 
 acute intelligence, that whirlwind of the insurrec- 
 
BLACK KINGS AND EMPERORS 181 
 
 tion; the first great sovereign the blacks of America 
 ever had to rule as a despot and reign like a king. 
 He left no descendants to rule in his stead; but one 
 day, as I was crossing a plain near Cape Haitien, I saw 
 the last representative of his " nobility." Mounted 
 upon a small and bony steed was a black man clad 
 in faded regimentals, tattered and torn, with an enor- 
 mous cocked hat on his woolly head and two great 
 spurs strapped to his naked heels. " That, sir," said 
 my guide, " is the Comte de Limonade ! " Not the 
 original one, to be sure, but the present heir to title 
 and estates. 
 
 Equally impoverished are the present residents of 
 the city which was built by the French, burned by 
 Christophe, and where resided Leclerc and Pauline 
 Bonaparte when the plague carried off the flower of 
 France's soldiery — Cape Haitien, formerly Cape 
 Francais, and once so gay that it was called the 
 " Paris of the West Indies." It is now a wretched 
 ruin, possessing only the remains of former great- 
 ness, and without a single suggestion of any art or 
 architecture originating with the blacks. The same 
 may be said of Haiti at large. Nothing, absolutely 
 nothing, has she to show for her century of freedom 
 except the degenerate descendants of those who won 
 it. Idle, apathetic, without ambition, immoral to 
 the core, both in civil life and in politics, the Haitians 
 have not improved their opportunities to show the 
 world what the black man might do when free and 
 independent. 
 
 Christophe killed himself in 1820. His " king- 
 dom " comprised only the northern portion of the 
 
182 
 
 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 island, and his subjects consisted mainly of blacks. 
 His great rival, with whom he was for years at war, 
 was General Petion, a mulatto, whose capital was at 
 Port au Prince, and who was invested with the title 
 of president of the mulatto republic, which he held 
 until he died, in 1818. He was succeeded by Boyer, 
 another mulatto educated in Paris, who had also 
 come over with Leclerc, and whose father was a 
 tailor, his mother a Congo negress. He availed him- 
 self of the confusion 
 consequent upon 
 Christophe's death 
 and invaded the 
 north, where he was 
 well received. In 
 1822 he was impor- 
 tuned by the Span- 
 iards of the eastern 
 part to make a peace- 
 ful entry into their 
 capital; and thus the 
 whole island, for the 
 first time in its his- 
 tory, was united 
 under one govern- 
 ment, in which it con- 
 tinued until Boyer's 
 deposition, in 1843. 
 After him came several rulers of no special im- 
 portance, all as nominal presidents, until in 1847 
 one Soulouque, a superstitious and illiterate adherent 
 of the voodoo, or serpent worshipers, declared him- 
 
 King Henry I, of Haiti. 
 
BLACK KINGS AND EMPERORS 183 
 
 self emperor under the title of " Faustin I." He 
 revived the old " nobility " of the Limonades and 
 Marmalades; but finally Faustin I became the laugh- 
 ingstock of the civilized world, and even degenerate 
 Haiti was forced to repudiate him. A rebellion was 
 successfully raised by one Geffrard, who followed 
 him a few years later to Jamaica as an exile, both, 
 it was declared, having plundered the island of mil- 
 lions. Salnave, the black soldier, who succeeded the 
 mulatto Geffrard as " president," was shot in the 
 doorway of the national palace by order of his suc- 
 cessor, Saget. 
 
 Thus they followed each other, these self-elected 
 " presidents " of hapless Haiti, mulattoes and blacks 
 alternating, the last, who imitated Christophe in all 
 but his affectations of royalty, being Hyppolite. He 
 massacred hundreds of people on his road to the pal- 
 ace in 1891, and died in 1897, being succeeded by a 
 " compromise candidate," President-General Sam, 
 also a black man, who reigns in 1900. 
 
 The status of Haiti is probably lower than that 
 of any other power in the community of nations. 
 Its people have created absolutely nothing, to fill the 
 place of what they have so ruthlessly destroyed, they 
 have added nothing whatever to the sum of this 
 century's worthy achievements. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 SANTIAGO AND HAVANA 
 
 Santo Domingo was the " mother colony " of 
 the West Indies for many years, and from the island 
 went out the various bands of conquistadores who 
 settled Cuba, Puerto Pico, and Jamaica. In the year 
 1508, acting under orders from the governor of Santo 
 Domingo, Sebastian de Ocampo sailed completely 
 around Cuba, thus for the first time demonstrating 
 that it was an island. He made many interesting 
 discoveries, careened his vessels in the port since 
 known as Havana, and at Cienfuegos, on the south 
 coast, traded with the natives. Of his visit to Cien- 
 fuegos Herrera says : " There was Ocampo, very 
 much at his ease, well served by the Indians with an 
 infinite number of partridges like those of Castile, 
 but smaller; and also an abundance of fish called 
 ' lizas,' which were taken from a natural fish pond, 
 where there were millions of them, just as safe as 
 if they were in a tank attached to one's house." 
 
 The honor of making the first settlements in Cuba 
 belongs to Don Diego Velasquez, who was created 
 adelantado, and who sailed from the city of Santo 
 Domingo in November , 1511, with four vessels and 
 three hundred men. Among those in his company 
 was one who became more famous than the adelan- 
 184 
 
SANTIAGO AND HAVANA 
 
 185 
 
 tado — no less a personage than Hernan Cortes, who 
 had come out to the island a young man, and who had 
 been assigned a repartimiento of Indians on the south 
 coast, at or near the present port of Azua, in Ana- 
 caona's country. 
 
 A cartmau of Cuba. 
 
 Velasquez first landed at the port of Las Palmas, 
 situated between Guantanamo and Escondido, on the 
 south coast of Cuba; but the first town founded was 
 that of Nuestra Senora de la Asuncion, now known 
 as Baracoa, to the northwest of Cape Maysi, early in 
 1512. He intended this to become the capital of the 
 island, and appointed civil and ecclesiastical officers; 
 
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188 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 cidents of the siege of Santiago in 1898 was that some 
 of the American battle ships which threw shot and 
 shell into the city and harbor were belted with plates 
 made from iron out of Santiago's mines! 
 
 Although the entrance to Santiago harbor is so 
 obscure as almost to merit the name bestowed upon 
 another near, of Escondido, or Hidden, yet it was 
 soon found by Spain's enemies, and many a naval en- 
 gagement has been f ought within. A fierce fight, 
 which was continued for two days, took place in 1537 
 between a Spanish vessel and a French privateer that 
 had arrived in the bay. Each day they fought and 
 each night the respective commanders ceased firing 
 and exchanged courtesies. In the morning at sun- 
 rise the combat was resumed, but without any result 
 until the third night, when the privateer gave up 
 the fight and crawled out of the harbor. 
 
 In 1553 the city was captured by four hundred 
 French arquebusiers, who held it for a month, until 
 a ransom of eighty thousand dollars was paid. As 
 late as 1592 piratical attacks were so frequent that 
 the inhabitants were often obliged to seek refuge in 
 Bayamo, some distance in the interior. Until near 
 the end of that century, Santiago was held to be the 
 capital of Cuba, but when, in 1608, the cathedral 
 was ruined by an earthquake, the bishop removed 
 to Havana and carried his authority with him. In 
 the quarrel that ensued the bishop had the captain 
 general excommunicated, and all the clergy of the 
 city went in procession to curse him and to stone his 
 house. Two hundred years later, in 1810, a marble 
 slab was taken from the ruins of the ancient cathe- 
 
SANTIAGO AND HAVANA 189 
 
 dral bearing an inscription to the effect that the 
 remains of Don Diego Velasquez, the first explorer 
 and conqueror of Cuba, were bnried there. This fact 
 revived the stories current at one time of his cruelty, 
 when the poor Indians were slaughtered by him and 
 his companions without mercy. They soon went 
 the way of those in Haiti; whole companies of them 
 committed suicide to escape the tortures of the Span- 
 iards, and hundreds of them were massacred without 
 cause. 
 
 During the frequent wars between Spain and 
 England the latter power always sent her war ships 
 to the West Indies and to Cuba as offering vulner- 
 able points of attack, and thus the poor colonists were 
 made the victims of their home country's policy. In 
 1662, for example, the English, under Lord Winsor, 
 attacked Santiago, landed eight hundred men at 
 Aguadores, marched upon and took the city, carried 
 off church bells, treasure, slaves, guns from the forts, 
 and blew up the Morro itself, hitherto considered 
 impregnable. It was rebuilt, however, in 1663, and 
 at the same time supplemented by the forts and bat- 
 teries of Santa Catalina, La Punta, and La Estrella, 
 all which were vainly bombarded by the Americans 
 in 1898. 
 
 With all these evidences of Santiago's antiquity 
 before us it does not seem improbable that, as the 
 story goes, the ribs of a galleon which once sailed 
 with Spain's mighty armada lie at the bottom of its 
 harbor. How they got there no one seems to know; 
 but it is certain that Sir Francis Drake, who bore so 
 conspicuous a part in defeating that armada in 1588, 
 
190 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 was frequently prowling about in these waters. He 
 lost a ship to a Spanish admiral off the Isle of Pines 
 in a notable encounter, and the Cubans were con- 
 stantly in dread of his coming. 
 
 We shall present in briefest outline only the 
 great events which have so recently happened here, 
 because so many pens of late have made them famil- 
 iar to all. It should be recalled, however, that Santi- 
 ago was the " storm center " of the war that ended 
 in the expulsion of Spain forever from American 
 waters, and wrested from her the colonies she had 
 founded in the sixteenth century. Citizens of the 
 United States have been several times involved in 
 Cuban uprisings as individuals, without the sanction 
 of their Government, and notably in what is known 
 as the " Virginius affair," in 1873. The Virginius 
 was an American ship which sailed clandestinely to 
 the aid of the Cubans, and was taken on the high 
 seas off Jamaica by a Spanish man-of-war. She 
 was brought to Santiago, and within a few days her 
 master, Captain Fry, and forty-eight of her crew 
 and passengers were summarily shot. This barbar- 
 ous proceeding aroused even the lethargic United 
 States, and diplomatic intercourse between our coun- 
 try and Spain was on the point of rupture, when the 
 Spanish Government made a tardy disavowal of the 
 whole affair, promised to restore the ship to its 
 owners, and to salute our flag if in the wrong. It 
 was found to be morally wrong, though technically 
 within its international rights, and the salute was dis- 
 pensed with. The Virginius was taken away in 
 charge of an American crew, but in such a filthy and 
 
SANTIAGO AND HAVANA 191 
 
 unseaworthy condition that there was great relief 
 when she foundered off our coast before reaching 
 port. 
 
 It was charged at the time that our Government 
 had ordered her scuttled at sea to avoid international 
 complications; but I can state, from my own experi- 
 ence, that, whether or not this was true, the storm 
 which prevailed the night she went down was suffi- 
 cient to sink any ordinary craft, short-handed as she 
 was, for I happened to be within its radius (and if the 
 weather had been clear should have been within 
 sight of the ship) when she sank. This occurrence 
 made an indelible impression upon my memory, and 
 it was with sad interest that, years afterward, I 
 viewed the dead wall of the slaughter house against 
 which those unfortunate men of the Yirginius were 
 stood up to be shot, in the city of Santiago. 
 
 Provided such a deed must needs be avenged, then 
 it has been requited, and by Americans; for it was 
 here that Spain was reduced, at one fell swoop, to a 
 third-rate power, by the victories won by our soldiers 
 and sailors in June and July, 1898. 
 
 After war was declared between the United 
 States and Spain in April, 1898, two months of hur- 
 ried preparations ensued, and it was not known at 
 what point troops or ships would come into collision. 
 The sailing of Admiral Cervera's fleet from the Cape 
 de Yerde Islands for the West Indies left our nation 
 in suspense for weeks, as it was not known what por- 
 tion of our coast might be the object of attack. 
 When, finally, word came that the fleet had taken 
 coal at Curacao, the country breathed more freely, 
 
SANTIAGO AND HAVANA 193 
 
 since it was then seen that the Spanish objective was 
 probably Cuba or Puerto Rico, and the coast of our 
 mainland was at least safe for the time. The two 
 American fleets that had been assembled, the one 
 engaged in the blockade of Havana under Admiral 
 Sampson and the flying squadron at Newport Xews 
 under Schley, were ordered to converge in the chan- 
 nel south of Cuba; but it was not until much valu- 
 able time had been wasted that the mystery of Cer- 
 vera's movements was penetrated by a daring recon- 
 noissance, which disclosed his fleet safely ensconced 
 in Santiago's harbor. 
 
 To brave Lieutenant Blue belongs the honor of 
 this achievement, and, now in full confidence that 
 the enemy would be captured in time, our war ships 
 assembled off the harbor mouth within sight and shot 
 of grim old Morro. This act of Cervera's, in seeking 
 shelter at a Spanish port, when he might easily have 
 ravaged some portion of our Continental coast, at once 
 determined the theater of war. All our energies 
 were devoted to concentrating troops and war ships 
 at this point, and before the last of June the battles 
 of £1 Caney and Las Guasimas had been fought, the 
 storming of San Juan Hill had proved the valor of 
 our soldiers, and Santiago itself had been invested. 
 Then followed Cervera's desperate dash for liberty 
 from the harbor of Santiago, and the swift demoli- 
 tion of his gallant ships by the watchful Yankees 
 off the harbor entrance. By the destruction of this 
 fleet of Spanish war ships, the second naval victory 
 of the war was won by the Americans (the first 
 being that of Manila; with the loss of but a single 
 
I'M 
 
 THE STOIMKI) WUST IN Dl MS 
 
 man. Shattered and smoking wrecks upon the ( Juban 
 coast, lay the flower of Spain's navy, and one of her 
 most gallant admirals, together with hundreds of her 
 sailors, were our prisoners. All this occurred <»n the 
 3d of July, and it was a most memorable tc Fourth" 
 that was celebrated in the year L898, when the 
 rumors were confirmed of the total destruction of the 
 Spanish fleet. 
 
 The liill <>l Santiago followed, as a matter of 
 course, on the L7th of July, and all the eastern prov- 
 ince came into our possession. A.ccording to the terms 
 <>l capitulation, the twenty thousand soldiers com- 
 prising the garrisons were repatriated at our expense; 
 but still there were more than a hundred thousand 
 Spanish fighting men on Cuban soil, and the work of 
 
 expulsion w;is considered to have just begun. The 
 
 genius of the United States was now thoroughly 
 aroused, but had hardly put forth its energies when 
 we were astounded by a proposition from Spain for 
 the cessation of hostilities. 
 
 So it is around Santiago that associations now 
 cluster which have become interwoven with our coun- 
 try's history. Down by the water side is the stark 
 
 Willi where the men of the Virginius met their doom; 
 
 not far distant is the harbor mouth where Lieu- 
 tenant Hobson and his seven companions s:mk the 
 Merriimic and won undying fame; over the hills are 
 the heights of San Juan and El Caney, where Ameri- 
 can soldiers wiped out whatever slain of Mood may 
 have been imprinted upon their flag in years gone 
 by. For many years Americans had been 8'ubjected 
 to insult and conl umely at the hands of the arrogant 
 
SANTIAGO AND HAVANA [05 
 
 Spaniards; but when once they sprang to arms, in 
 a single, short campaign they not only caused the 
 downfall of Santiago and the Mx>rro> but sent Spain 
 herself tottering to her fall. 
 
 The final blow wan dealt at Santiago, and with 
 the surrender of that city and province passed the 
 virtual possession of the island to the Americans; for 
 Havana, though girdled with fori- and castled for 
 tresses, and the headquarters of a captain general 
 in command of more than a hundred thousand men, 
 came to ii- without tin; firing of another gun. 
 
 Tin: name of Havana was first applied to the 
 present port of Batabano, on the south coast of 
 Cuba, which was founded in 1511. but transferred to 
 the north coast in 1519. The landing place of the 
 first colonists is to-day indicated by a small chapel, 
 and a .-/-ion of the original ceiba tree beneath which 
 the event was celebrated. Ships sailing between 
 
 Spain and Mexico -oon after touched here, and from 
 
 it- commanding situation and superexcellent harbor 
 it came to be called "The K<-y of the New World." 
 Commerce quickly found it out, and also those para- 
 sites of commerce, tin- buccaneers, who as early as 
 L528 sacked and burned the city. On account of its 
 value, the King of Spain ordered two great castles 
 built, as a protection to the town, and work wa* begun 
 ai once upon the Bateria do la Punta and the Morro, 
 under a celebrated Italian engineer. These impor- 
 tant fortifications, which command the harbor en- 
 trance on either side, may -till be seen; but though 
 begun more than three hundred and sixty years ago, 
 
196 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 they were still in an unfinished state when threatened 
 by Drake in 1585. His advent again, in 1592, hur- 
 ried these slow-moving Spaniards somewhat; but in 
 1628, when the city was attacked by Dutch pirates, 
 the forts were far from being completed. 
 
 In addition to being constantly the object of 
 attacks from Spain's enemies, Havana also suffered 
 severely from hurricanes and fires in later years, as 
 in 1768, 1802, 1810, and 1846. On the 10th of 
 October, 1846, the island was swept by the most vio- 
 lent hurricane ever known in its history, eighteen 
 thousand dwellings being destroyed — five thousand 
 five hundred in Havana alone. A vast territory was 
 ravaged, more than one hundred coasting vessels were 
 wrecked, and hundreds of people were killed. Again, 
 about twenty years later, the island and city were 
 storm swept, with great loss of life and shipping; yet 
 Havana has survived all the attacks of buccaneers, 
 pirates, filibusters, fire, and hurricane, and when it 
 passed from Spanish to American hands, in 1898, 
 was one of the finest cities in tropical America. 
 
 In a review of the many great events that have 
 taken place here, we should not lose sight of two ex- 
 peditions made to Florida — by Pamphilo de Narvaez 
 in 1528, and by Ferdinand de Soto in 1539. De Soto 
 was, as is well known, governor general of Cuba at 
 the time he fitted out his ill-starred expedition to 
 Florida, and it was from the harbor of Havana that 
 he sailed forth on the voyage that ended in the dis- 
 covery of the Mississippi and his burial beneath its 
 waters. Hither, it is thought, was brought Ponce de 
 Leon in 1521, wounded by an arrow from the bow 
 
Havana in the seventeenth century. 
 
198 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 of a Floridian, and here he died. Though politically 
 separated for years, yet many traditions of Cuba and 
 Florida have been common to both, through the ad- 
 ventures of Spaniards in the sixteenth century. 
 
 Though many times menaced, Havana had re- 
 mained essentially a Spanish possession until the clos- 
 ing years of the present century. In 1534, and again 
 in 1554, it was taken by the French; in 1624 by the 
 Dutch ; but each time was restored to Spain. Its most 
 critical period was in the last quarter of the eight- 
 eenth century, when the English assailed Spain's 
 holdings in the West Indies with the intention of 
 permanent occupancy. Had Great Britain carried 
 out her diplomatic schemes of that time, doubtless 
 the history of the Western Hemisphere would have 
 been radically different from that which we know; 
 but she has always acted in a half-hearted manner 
 with respect to the West Indies, and though she has 
 expended vast treasure and shed British blood with- 
 out stint, yet her possessions there to-day are com- 
 paratively insignificant. Not alone British, but 
 American blood, has been spilled in Britain's attempts 
 to humble Spain through the conquest of her Cuban 
 colony; indeed, it cost our colonies thirty thousand 
 men, as well as sixteen million dollars, to take Havana 
 in 1762. That midsummer expedition, by which the 
 English under Lord Albemarle invested Havana and 
 finally captured it, was the second attempt of the 
 kind undertaken with the assistance of eminent 
 Americans. In the first, which was futile, twenty 
 years earlier, a brother of George Washington, 
 Major Lawrence, was engaged; and he afterward 
 
SANTIAGO AND HAVANA 199 
 
 named, in honor of the commander of that expedi- 
 tion, the famous Virginia plantation, Mount Vernon, 
 which later came into the possession of our honored 
 first president. 
 
 The second siege was the event of the century in 
 the West Indies, and ended, after almost incredible 
 suffering on the part of the besiegers, in the fall 
 of the forts and the capture of the city. As in the 
 more recent occupation of the Cuban capital by the 
 military forces of the United States, British occu- 
 pancy resulted most favorably for the Havanese, for 
 the city was cleansed of its impurities, the ravages of 
 the endemic fevers were checked, and commerce, un- 
 restricted by arbitrary laws, swelled to unwonted 
 proportions. 
 
 The next year England gave up her dearly 
 bought possession in exchange for Florida, and it 1 
 has come about that, in the providence of God, the 
 blood of the American colonists was not shed in vain 
 after all; for one hundred and twenty-six years later 
 their descendants marched into Havana without 
 the direct loss of a life or the firing of a gun. Before 
 the end of December, 1898, the island had been 
 cleared of Spanish troops, and all its provinces, cities, 
 towns, and forts were in American hands, to be held 
 in trust for the Cubans until a stable government 
 should be established. 
 
 The loss to Spain of a colony which had been 
 hers for four hundred years impels us to seek a 
 reason for this momentous event. In a word, it was 
 cruelty. From the very first the Spaniards treated 
 their American subjects with unprecedented sever- 
 
SANTIAGO AND HAVANA 201 
 
 ity: at the outset the unfortunate Indians, then their 
 successors the native-born settlers. All the West 
 Indian islands, particularly Cuba and Puerto Rico, 
 have been considered merely fields for the exer- 
 cise of official rapacity and extortion, treated as con- 
 quered provinces. The result has been a condition 
 of unrest, which has shown itself in numerous re- 
 bellions and filibustering expeditions. The most ex- 
 tensive rebellion was that known as the " Ten Years' 
 War " (1868-'78), and which, after terrible cruelties 
 had been perpetrated, was brought to an end by a 
 treaty, which was perfidiously violated by Spain. 
 The Cubans did not obtain those concessions to 
 which their valor had entitled them, and seven- 
 teen years later, in 1895, inevitable war again broke 
 out and ravaged the island. The leaders were 
 Gomez, Garcia, and Maceo, and they pursued the 
 same tactics as in the previous war, rarely coming 
 to close quarters with the enemy, but carrying on a 
 guerrilla warfare. They obtained no great successes 
 in the field, but had driven the Spaniards mainly 
 within the shelter of a few forts and cities. 
 " Butcher Weyler " was carrying on his barbarous 
 policy of extermination by causing the reconcentrados 
 to starve in the settlements. This state of affairs 
 might have lasted for years had not a crisis occurred. 
 That crisis in Cuban affairs was the blowing up of 
 the United States battle ship Maine in the harbor of 
 Havana — a dastardly massacre of two hundred and 
 sixty American officers and sailors. It was the wreck 
 of the Maine that caused the total collapse of Spanish 
 hopes in Cuba; for the intervention of the United 
 
202 
 
 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 States, and that short though bloody campaign in the 
 summer of 1898, drove the Spaniards from the island 
 which for centuries had bled beneath their merciless 
 
 oppressions. Not 
 long before a Span- 
 ish premier had de- 
 clared that there was 
 not money enough 
 in the United States 
 to purchase Cuba, 
 nor power enough to 
 take her; yet within 
 one hundred days 
 from the declaration 
 of war she was in 
 American hands, and 
 the first day of Janu- 
 ary, 1899, saw the 
 last of Spanish sol- 
 diers on this side of 
 the Atlantic. 
 
 The month of 
 July, 1898, was a 
 memorable one to 
 Cuba, for then she 
 realized the aims for which she had fought many 
 years; to Spain, also, for then ceased her dominion 
 in the West Indies; to the United States, for then 
 was proved the valor of her soldiers and her mag- 
 nanimity as a nation. 
 
 A fair Havanese. 
 
CHAPTER XYI 
 
 JAMAICA ABD THE MAKOONS 
 
 Jamaica, like Cuba and Haiti, retain? its aborigi- 
 nal name, which, signifies a land of springs, or of 
 woods and waters. It is a land of mountains also, 
 the highest, or Blue Mountain Peak, reaching an 
 altitude of more than seven thousand feet. The 
 island was discovered by Columbus on his second voy- 
 age, in 1494, but is more particularly identified with 
 his fourth, and last, which extended from 1502 to 
 1504, and was the most disastrous of all. AVe have 
 noted that Columbus touched at Hispaniola on this 
 voyage, where he warned the governor of an ap- 
 proaching hurricane : that his advice was disregarded, 
 BobadUla's fleet being wrecked in the storm: and 
 that his own little squadron was in great danger on 
 the south coast of that island. Having been forbid- 
 den to land anywhere on the coast of Hispaniola, 
 Columbus steered for Veragua. where, after re- 
 peated failures to found a settlement, he at last 
 was driven by a great storm to the south coast of 
 Cuba, whence, with his vessels in a shattered and 
 sinking condition, he sought the north shore of Ja- 
 maica. This north coast has many good harbors, and 
 into one of these, which he called Porto Bueno. he 
 sailed with his sinking ships. A little later, with- 
 15 203 
 
JAMAICA AND THE MAROONS 205 
 
 drawing his craft from this harbor, he entered a small 
 bay and ran them ashore on the sands, where he was 
 kept a prisoner for more than a year by the com- 
 bined forces of the elements and the hostile natives. 
 The bay in which he stranded his vessels is still 
 known as Don Christopher's Cove, and one day I 
 visited and photographed the scene of this the sad- 
 dest episode in the life of Columbus. 
 
 Running the vessels upon the shore, Columbus 
 propped them in an upright position, then built a 
 thatched roof over the decks, and thus " castled in 
 the sea," as he terms it, he remained in this spot a 
 long and weary twelvemonth. At first the Indians, 
 who were allied to those of Haiti but more fierce 
 and warlike, were inclined to pity his misfortunes 
 and supply him with fresh provisions; but at last 
 they became rebellious and refused longer to render 
 assistance. Then it was, if we may believe the ac- 
 counts transmitted to us, that he gained by artifice 
 what he could not obtain by force or entreaties. He 
 knew from his calculations that an eclipse of the 
 moon was soon to occur, and he employed this knowl- 
 edge to impress the Indians with an idea of his im- 
 portance. He told the chief that he had control 
 over the celestial bodies, and that if his supplies 
 were not renewed at once he would remove the 
 light of the moon forever from the island. The In- 
 dians scoffed at this threat, but when at the time 
 mentioned the moon's glory was obscured they came 
 and entreated him to cause the Queen of Night to re- 
 turn to her place in the heavens. As they promised 
 to give the Spaniards all the supplies they needed, 
 
206 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 Columbus pretended to relent, and after retiring to 
 his cabin came forth and assured them that their 
 prayers had been answered, and all would be well 
 again if they fulfilled their agreement. This they 
 gladly did, and thenceforth there was no danger 
 from famine. But another danger threatened in the 
 revolt of a portion of the crew, under two brothers 
 named Porras, who led their followers off to ravage 
 and destroy. 
 
 A brave young Spaniard, Diego Mendez, volun- 
 teered to go in a canoe to Hispaniola and apprise the 
 governor of their perilous position, and this he suc- 
 ceded in doing, after terrible exposure in crossing 
 the channel; but the vile Ovando purposely withheld 
 succor from his imperilled countrymen for nearly a 
 year, and meanwhile Columbus despaired of being 
 rescued. It was while thus a prisoner, and in sus- 
 pense, that he wrote a last appeal to his sovereigns, in 
 a letter dated Jamaica, 1504. It begins: " Diego 
 Mendez, and the papers I send by him, will show your 
 Highnesses what rich mines of gold I have discovered 
 in Veragua, and how I intended to have left my 
 brother at the river Belen if the judgments of 
 Heaven and the greatest misfortunes in the world 
 had not prevented it. However, it is sufficient that 
 your Highnesses and your successors will have the 
 glory and advantages of it all, and that the full 
 discovery and settlement are reserved for happier 
 persons than the unfortunate Columbus. If God 
 be so merciful as to conduct Mendez to Spain, 1 
 doubt not but he will convince your Highness 
 and my great Mistress that this will not only be a 
 
JAMAICA AND THE MAROONS 207 
 
 stile and Leon, but a discovery of a world of 
 subjects, lands, and wealth greater than man's un- 
 bounded fancy could ever comprehend or avarice 
 itself covet; but neither he, this paper, nor the tongue 
 
 of mortal man can express the anguish and afflic- 
 tions of my body and mind, nor the mi -cry and dan- 
 gers of my son. brother, and friends. Already :. 
 we been confined ten months in this place, lodged on 
 the open decks of our ships that are run ashore and 
 lashed together: those of my men that were in health 
 have mutinied under the Porrases of Seville; my 
 friends that were faithful are mostly sick and dying; 
 
 have consumed the Indians' provisions - that 
 they abandon us; all, therefore, are likely to perish of 
 hunger, and these miseries are accompanied by so 
 many aggravating cireumsti - that render me the 
 st wretched object of mi -fortune this world shall 
 see: as if the displeasure of Heavei tided 
 
 the envy of Spain, and would punish as criminal 
 those undertakings which former ages would : 
 acknc s - _ 3at and meritorious actions! " 
 
 These repinings of Columbi - wei e born of his 
 well-founded distrust of both King Ferdinand and 
 the governor of Hispanolia: yet his undaunted spirit 
 still held to the glory of his great discoveries, which 
 the world has since confirmed and aokr. ged in 
 
 full measure. 
 
 Columbus - al last - r rd by a party grudg- 
 ingly sent out by Dvando, who purposely dela; 
 hoping that meanwhile the shipwrecked mar' 
 
 with of honor at 
 
 EGspaniola, and seni fcc Spain, where he arrived only 
 
208 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 to learn of the last illness and death of Queen Isa- 
 bella, his sole friend at court. 
 
 Columbus never made another voyage, being 
 slighted and contemptuously treated by King Ferdi- 
 nand, and died two years later, in 1506. Even the 
 empty titles which were promised him by his sover- 
 eigns were withheld from his family, until finally 
 Don Diego, his son, wrested them from Ferdinand 
 by legal process; and years later his grandson, Don 
 Luis, received the title of Due cle Yeragua and Mar- 
 quis de la Yega — the one from the region discov- 
 ered on that last voyage, the other from another 
 province in the island of Jamaica, where the second 
 city was founded. 
 
 It was in 1503 that Columbus underwent that 
 terrible experience in Jamaica, but not until twenty 
 years later, or in 1523, was the first settlement 
 founded there by the Spaniards. That year a city 
 was begun near Santa Gloria, now Saint Ann's, and 
 called Sevilla Nueva. In a few years it became an 
 important town; a cathedral and a monastery were 
 designed for it, the abbot of which latter was after- 
 ward the famous Peter Martyr of Angleria, author 
 of De Orbe Novo, which contained the first published 
 account of the discovery of America. Sevilla Nueva 
 long since fell to ruin, and the only remains of it 
 to-day are a few hewn stones and mounds of earth. 
 In 1688 Sir Hans Sloane, who came to Jamaica 
 with the Duke of Albemarle, wrote The Natural 
 History of Jamaica, and was the virtual founder 
 of the British Museum, reported the existence of 
 extensive ruins here. But about 1530, from some 
 
JAMAICA AND THE MAROONS 209 
 
 cause, the Spaniards abandoned the north side of 
 the island and went to the southwest, where they laid 
 the foundations of San Jago de la Vega, now called 
 Spanish Town. 
 
 The Spanish occupation continued for a century 
 and a half, but there are few reminders of it now. 
 Don Diego Columbus is the reputed founder of Se- 
 villa; and the title of his son, Don Luis, is perpetuated 
 in the marquisate of La Vega, or the plain in which 
 Spanish Town stands; there is a town called Porus, 
 after the Spaniards (Porras) who mutinied against 
 Columbus; and the Pedro River reminds us of Don 
 Pedro Esquimel, at one time governor of Jamaica 
 and a cruel oppressor of the Indians. 
 
 If the Spaniards had been humane and observant 
 of international rights, Jamaica might long have re- 
 mained in their possession; but the same causes that 
 operated against them in the fitting out of priva- 
 teers and the encouragement of buccaneering now 
 worked their ruin in this island. A treaty had been 
 signed between Spain and England in 1630, but the 
 Spaniards had not observed even the first article of 
 it, which was " that there should be peace, amity, 
 and friendship between the two crowns and their 
 respective subjects in all parts of the world." 
 Though publicly professing friendship with England, 
 yet the Spaniards privately reserved the right to 
 oppress all English subjects found by them in the 
 seas or territories discovered by Columbus. They 
 chased English ships, placed English seamen in the 
 stocks and sent them to the galleys. In one instance, 
 according to Sir "Walter Raleigh, they murdered a 
 
210 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 crew of twenty-six Englishmen by tying them back 
 to back and then cutting their throats. They drove 
 the French and English out of Saint Kitt's in 1630 
 (while the treaty was being signed), out of Tortuga 
 in 1638, and out of Santa Cruz in 1650, practicing 
 on them the same outrageous cruelties as were in- 
 flicted upon the Indians. When at last sturdy 
 Oliver Cromwell attained to power, he instituted in- 
 quiries into these outrages, and entered protests, 
 assuring the King of Spain, through his minister in 
 London, that he should demand freedom from the 
 practices of the Inquisition and free sailing in the 
 West Indies. To these demands the minister re- 
 plied that " to ask liberty from the Inquisition and 
 free sailing in the West Indies was to ash his mas- 
 ter's two eyes; and that nothing could be done on 
 those points but according to the practices of former 
 times." 
 
 Cromwell rejoined, in effect, in the words of an- 
 other: "I know of no title that the Spaniards hath 
 but by force, which by the same title may be re- 
 pelled. And as to the first discovery — to me it seems 
 as little reason that the sailing of a Spanish ship 
 upon the coast of India should entitle the King of 
 Spain to that country as the sailing of an Indian or 
 English ship upon the coast of Spain should entitle 
 either the Indians or English unto the dominion 
 thereof! . . . The Spaniards have contravened the 
 Treaty of 1630. War must needs be justifiable 
 when peace is not allowable." At all events, Crom- 
 well proceeded against the Spanish colonies in the 
 West Indies in order to maintain the prestige of 
 
JAMAICA AND THE MAROONS 211 
 
 the British name, which had been so foully sullied 
 in the reign of Charles I. He caused to be fitted out 
 a great expedition, under the command of Admiral 
 Penn, father of our famous William, the land forces 
 of which were under General Yenables. This expe- 
 dition was at first unsuccessful in an attempt upon 
 Hispaniola, but the Spaniards in Jamaica promptly 
 capitulated on the 11th of May, 1655. 
 
 The Spaniards made an attempt to regain the 
 island a few weeks before Cromwell's death, but were 
 driven away, never to return. When Charles II 
 came to power again, Spain made a plausible plea 
 for its restoration to her on the ground that it 
 had been captured by rebel subjects of the English 
 crown; but the king, while willing enough to disavow 
 the acts of Cromwell, was equally ready to profit by 
 his prowess in the fields of war as well as of diplo- 
 macy, and refused to part with it. 
 
 Through the efforts of the Protector several 
 thousand Irish and colonial settlers were induced to 
 emigrate to Jamaica, and as they were not disturbed 
 by Charles, even though some of them had been ac- 
 tive in securing his father's execution, the island soon 
 became quite populous and prosperous. A great 
 measure of its original prosperity was due to the 
 gathering there of the buccaneers from Tortuga, 
 and it was not long before Port Eoyal, the chief 
 harbor, became the liveliest city in the West 
 Indies. 
 
 Chief among the degenerate buccaneers was one 
 Henry Morgan, a Welshman, who had risen to promi- 
 nence by deeds of blood, by captures of Spanish 
 
212 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 ships, and the sacking of Spanish cities, like Car- 
 tagena, Puerto Bello, and Panama. By treachery 
 and murder he had acquired an immense fortune 
 through the connivance and partnership (it was openly 
 charged) of King Charles II himself. At any rate, 
 after he had served as lieutenant governor of the 
 island (during the absence of the governor, the Duke 
 of Carlisle), he went to England and was most honor- 
 ably received by the king, who conferred upon him 
 the honor of knighthood, so that to history he is 
 known as Sir Henry Morgan. His great predeces- 
 sors, Drake and Hawkins, had come to the West 
 Indies with knightly honors adorning their brows, 
 and had won distinction despite their handicap of 
 title; but "Sir Henry" won his spurs through 
 dastardly deeds, bloodstained and smelling of the 
 gallows, and thus earned the favor of royalty. The 
 old proverb, however, of " set a thief to catch a 
 thief " was well illustrated in his case, for while he 
 was deputy governor the poor buccaneers fared ex- 
 ceedingly ill at his hands. He knew their haunts 
 and he knew their ways, and so pursued them with- 
 out mercy, hanging some and shooting others, until 
 at last not enough were left to form a " corporal's 
 guard." While they lived, however, and while 
 piracy and buccaneering were profitable, how they 
 made the streets of Port Royal resound with their 
 revelries, and enriched Jamaica with plunder derived 
 from the Spaniards! 
 
 This port was known as the wickedest as well as 
 the richest city in the islands, and it was considered 
 by many as a judgment from Heaven that before 
 
JAMAICA AND THE MAROONS 213 
 
 the century ended it was nearly destroyed by an 
 earthquake. It was in that memorable year of 1692, 
 about midday, the 7th of June, that the sands upon 
 which Port Eoyal was built slipped into the sea, 
 carrying with them vast piles of rich merchandise, 
 warehouses and dwellings, a church, the fortifica- 
 tions, and hundreds of unfortunate people, who were 
 ingulfed by the waves. 
 
 Almost as many people perished of the pestilence 
 generated from the mutilated corpses floating in the 
 bay as by the earthquake, so that the calamity was 
 felt all over the island. In an old cemetery on the 
 opposite side of the bay was one tombstone that 
 bore this quaint epitaph: "Here lies the body of 
 Lewis Galdy, Esquire, who departed this life at Port 
 Royal, the 22d December, 1736, aged 80 years. He 
 was born at Montpelier, France, but left that country 
 for his religion, and came to settle in this island; 
 where he was swallowed up by the great earthquake 
 in the year 1692; and by the providence of God 
 was, by another shock, thrown into the sea and 
 miraculously saved by swimming, until a boat took 
 him up. He lived many years after in great repu- 
 tation, beloved by all who knew him, and much 
 lamented at his death." 
 
 Port Royal may have contained, as one of its 
 survivors, a clergyman, remarked, " the most un- 
 godly people on the face of the earth " ; but nothing 
 of the sort was alleged of another place that was 
 swallowed up by the sea in a similar manner fifty 
 years later. This place was Savana la Mar, in the 
 parish of Westmoreland, which was swept by a tidal 
 
214 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 wave during a fierce hurricane, and not " a vestige 
 of man, beast, or habitation left behind." 
 
 Another memento of the Port Royal earthquake, 
 preserved in the museum of the Jamaica Institute, 
 is the bell of the church which was destroyed at that 
 time. It is said that to-day, when the sea is calm, 
 one may see the ruins of the houses submerged on 
 that awful day in June, 1692. 
 
 At the time Cromwell's soldiers wrested Jamaica 
 from the Spaniards there were few if any Indians 
 remaining. Despite their bravery and intelligence, 
 the aboriginal inhabitants were soon driven to the 
 mountains and finally exterminated. In caves and 
 ravines to-day are frequently found relics of those 
 people, in the shape of celts and pottery, fragments 
 of canoes, and skeletons. The English conquered 
 the Spaniards and drove them from the island, but 
 their negro slaves, to the number of about two thou- 
 sand, fled to the mountains, where they persistently 
 stayed, resisting every species of blandishment and 
 every attempt to re-enslave them. There they 
 and their descendants maintained themselves, even 
 though the best of British soldiery chased them about 
 at intervals for more than a hundred years. 
 
 As early as 1656 one of the British officers re- 
 ported to Cromwell that " they must either be de- 
 stroyed or brought in upon some terms or other, 
 or else they will prove a great discouragement to 
 the settling of the country." And, indeed, his pre- 
 diction was soon verified, for they were continually 
 on the warpath, constantly waylaying the unsus- 
 
JAMAICA AND THE MAROONS 215 
 
 picious soldiers and committing massacres. In 1663 
 they were offered a full pardon, twenty acres of land 
 apiece, and freedom from all manner of slavery, if 
 they would surrender; but having unrestricted range 
 of a vast tract of interior country capable of support- 
 ing thousands, they did not accept these conditions. 
 Eighty years after the conquest, between 1730 and 
 1740, these " Maroons " had become so insolent in 
 their depredations that two full regiments of regular 
 troops, besides all the militia of the island, were sent 
 to subdue them ; but never took a prisoner, and killed 
 but few of these wary blacks. 
 
 Their leader at that time was an uncouth dwarf 
 named Cudjoe, and their retreat in the fastnesses 
 of the John Crow Mountains was called Xanny Town, 
 after his favorite wife. Cudjoe was a pagan, and, 
 together with all his followers, worshiped the African 
 deities of Obeah, or the gods of sorcery-working wiz- 
 ards. Deep down in a romantic gorge where two 
 rivers meet, after plunging their waters over a rock 
 nine hundred feet in height, in a seething caldron 
 called " Xanny's Pot," into which, legend relates, 
 the black witch had power to cast the white soldiers 
 who pursued her. The barbarous blacks believed all 
 this, for, though the troops were at one time on their 
 trail for nine successive years, in the end the Maroons 
 were more numerous than at the beginning, owing to 
 accessions of runaway slaves. Old Cudjoe himself 
 was declared to be in league with the devil, whom he 
 was thought to resemble, and many a time he drew 
 the white troops into ambush in that wild and rugged 
 country only to slaughter them like sheep, until the 
 
2 If) THE STORIED WEST [NDIES 
 
 waters of the " Pot " were tinged with blood, and but 
 few survivors escaped. Even when, at last, one of the 
 British captains succeeded in dragging a pair of 
 mountain howitzers up the cliffs commanding Nanny 
 Town, and shelled their stronghold, though the Ma- 
 roons were at first panic-stricken and some burled 
 themselves over the precipices, the main force merely 
 scattered, like chickens before a hawk, and flanked 
 the enemy by meeting in the rear and cutting the 
 troop to pieces. Chief Cudjoe was at first astonished, 
 but not demoralized. " Dis here da new fashion for 
 fight," he said, as the shells came whizzing into the 
 town, and, bursting, scattered death on every baud. 
 " Da buckra man firs' he fire big ball arter you, and 
 den de big ball heself fire nudder arter yon ag'in. 
 Caramba! Dis buckra more cunnin' dan tudder! " 
 As stealthy and cunning as American Indians, these 
 forest-born Maroons skulked through the woods on 
 all sides of the noisy troops, but always out of sight 
 until the right moment for delivering their fire with 
 most fatal effect. 
 
 Finding that they could not subdue the Maroons 
 by methods used in civilized warfare, the Jamaicans 
 in 1737 resolved to import some Indians from the 
 Mosquito Coast, and as these last were greater adepts 
 at bushfighting even than the wild negroes, they soon 
 ran them down and brought them to bay. Tn 1738, 
 the scene of war having shifted to another portion 
 of the island, a treaty of peace was concluded with 
 the Maroons at Trelawney Town, under Captains 
 Cudjoe, Accompong, Johnny, Cuffee, Quaco, " and 
 several other negroes, their dependents and adher- 
 
M 
 
218 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 ents, who have been in a state of war and hostility, 
 for several years past, against our sovereign lord the 
 king, and the inhabitants of this island," whereby 
 they were assured their liberty forever, granted a 
 large tract of land in the mountains, and permitted 
 unrestricted trade with the whites. On their part 
 the Maroons agreed to maintain the peace, to return 
 all runaway slaves that should seek an asylum with 
 them, and to render aid in quelling local insurrec- 
 tions and repelling any foreign invader. In 1760 
 they were put to the test when a terrible outbreak oc- 
 curred of the fierce Koromantyn blacks, who com- 
 mitted fearful atrocities. A party of Maroons came 
 to the assistance of the whites, and made great show 
 of zeal, ranging the woods for several days, and 
 finally appearing with a large number of ears, 
 which they averred they had cut from the heads of 
 negroes they had killed, but which, it was later ascer- 
 tained, they had procured from blacks already 
 slaughtered and left on the field of battle by the 
 white militia! 
 
 The existence of a body of free negroes in the 
 midst of a slave population, even though less turbu- 
 lent than the Maroons, could not but prove an ex- 
 citant to frequent outbreaks and a source of great 
 apprehension to the planters. But the wild blacks 
 continued to enjoy their freedom unmolested until 
 the year 1795, when two of them, having been de- 
 tected in stealing pigs, were sent to the workhouse 
 and given thirty-nine lashes on the bare back. 
 When released, they immediately went to their reser- 
 vation and roused the whole population by a recital 
 
JAMAICA AND THE MAROONS 219 
 
 of the indignities that had been heaped upon them. 
 They had been whipped, and by the black driver of 
 the workhouse, in the presence of fugitive and felon 
 negro slaves, some of whom they themselves had ap- 
 prehended! This act was an offense to their pride 
 which the whole body of blacks resented, and at once 
 the mountains were on fire with revolt. Upon re- 
 viewing the measures that had been adopted in pre- 
 vious campaigns, it was found that great results had 
 been obtained from the employment of dogs, packs 
 of which had been furnished by the churchwardens 
 of each parish of the island. As these had long since 
 become exterminated, the local assembly voted an 
 appropriation for the purchase of a pack of Cuban 
 bloodhounds, and agents were sent to Cuba for that 
 purpose. So, after an interval of about two centuries, 
 the Spanish methods used against the Indians of the 
 islands were about to be employed upon the successors 
 to the aboriginal inhabitants. The commissioner 
 who had been sent to Havana for the dogs arrived at 
 Montego Bay with forty Spanish huntsmen, mostly 
 mulattoes, and one hundred hounds. Prepara- 
 tions were immediately made to set these monsters 
 on the trails; but no sooner was the news of their 
 arrival carried to the Maroons than they hastened 
 to sue for peace. " It is pleasing to observe," says 
 the ancient historian, " that not a drop of blood 
 was spilt after the dogs arrived in the island." A 
 pacification was arranged within a week, or on the 
 21st of December, 1796, and in June of next year 
 the chief offenders were banished to Halifax, Xova 
 Scotia, where for a while they worked on the fortifi- 
 16 
 
220 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 cations, and about the opening of this century were 
 sent to Liberia. 
 
 Thus it came about that the Spanish negroes, who 
 had maintained their independence for nearly one 
 hundred and fifty years, were at last only subjugated 
 by the employment of Spanish bloodhounds. Such 
 Maroons as had refrained from participating in this 
 outbreak were left undisturbed, and their descend- 
 ants still dwell in the island, where they form a 
 people apart from other blacks. Should my readers 
 ever visit Jamaica, perhaps they will find it worth 
 their while to call on the Maroons, the settlement 
 most easily reached being that of Moore Town, near 
 the John Crow Mountains, not far from famous l^anny 
 Town, in the parish of Portland. Even should one 
 feel disappointed in the aspect of the toAvn and 
 people, the journey thither will repay any reason- 
 able outlay, taking one through mountain passes 
 hung with luxuriant foliage, and by streams with 
 roaring waters. 
 
 By the " articles of pacification," in 173 8, the 
 Maroons bound themselves to assist in recovering run- 
 away slaves and in suppressing insurrections. One 
 hundred and twenty-seven years after this treaty was 
 signed, in 1865, they were called upon to observe 
 these provisions. Slavery was abolished in 1834, 
 and so there were no runaway slaves to recover; but 
 there had been insurrections of the blacks at various 
 times. In 1865 some discontented colored people 
 rose in revolt against what they termed the injustice 
 of the white minority, and it was even suggested that 
 the white people should be killed or expelled, and 
 
JAMAICA AND THE MAROONS 221 
 
 another black republic, like that of degenerate Haiti, 
 established. 
 
 The whites have always been hopelessly in the 
 minority in Jamaica, so long ago as 1692 being in the 
 proportion of one to six, and at the end of the nine- 
 teenth century constituting only one fortieth of the 
 total population. But for the saving grace of that one 
 fortieth, however, Jamaica would not hold the rank 
 she does to-day. Still, the revolt occurred, more 
 than a score of whites were massacred, and property 
 destroyed. It was suppressed with salutary rigor, and 
 the ringleaders summarily shot. The rebels scattered 
 and fled to the mountains, and when the Maroons 
 were called upon to fulfill their treaty obligations 
 and assist her Majesty's troops in suppressing the 
 rebellion they responded with alacrity. After the 
 task was accomplished, the Maroon warriors were 
 invited to Kingston, the capital, and then the white 
 people of Jamaica had their first glimpse of these re- 
 doubtable negroes. They were black and brawny, 
 with the independent carriage of men who had ever 
 maintained their independence. Some of them dis- 
 played silver medals which their ancestors had re- 
 ceived in the time of the Georges, and these relics, as 
 well as the stipulations under which they had come to 
 the white man's assistance, carried the memory back 
 to those days when the Maroons were a terror and a 
 menace to Jamaica. 
 
 Since the emancipation, owing to the scarcity of 
 labor and the consequent depression in the sugar-rais- 
 ing industry, more attention has been paid to the 
 growing of bananas and other tropical fruits, with 
 
222 
 
 TIIK STORIED WEST INDIKS 
 
 the result that the black proprietors bave greatly 
 increased in number during the past i<'n years. They 
 ;ir<' taking u|> lands in the mountains, and, ;is the 
 largest fruit plantation in the world, containing forty 
 thousand acres, lies adjacent i<> the M!oore Town 
 region, the Maroons also are becoming interested, and 
 are turning from the hunting <>f wild bogs to tilling 
 land in the valleys devoted i<> banana culture. 
 
 Aboriginal mealing atones, Jamaica 
 
CHAPTEE XVII 
 
 PUERTO BIOO AND THE VIRGIN ISLES 
 
 Puerto Rioo, popularly though improperly called 
 Porto Rico, was one of the first of the islands to be 
 colonized by settlers from Hispaniola, though not 
 until seventeen years after its discovery by Colum- 
 bus. After the Endians of the Higuey, the eastern 
 province of Hispaniola, had been subjugated, Gov- 
 ernor Ovando sent thither as his lieutenant a sol- 
 dier- who had boon prominent in the conquest, named 
 Ponce do Loon. He was a veteran campaigner, hav- 
 ing taken part in the wars with the Moors in Spain, 
 and had come to the Now World with Columbus on 
 his second voyage. He was with him when he landed 
 at Aguadilla to water his fleet, and could not but 
 notice its beauty and fertility. 
 
 " The fleet remained here two days," says Peter 
 Martyr the historian, " without seeing an inhabitant. 
 Bui there was a spacious walls from the shore, formed 
 with trees, interwoven al the top like an arbor, which 
 led to a village of twelve houses placed in a circle, 
 one of them remarkable for its size; and at the end of 
 the walk there was a balcony covered with beautiful 
 
 plants." 
 
 There is scant mention of Ponce do Leon in the 
 chronicles of Hispaniola, but from the very fact that 
 
 22:5 
 
224 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 he was selected by the infamous Ovando to govern 
 the province which had been so cruelly harried by 
 the Spaniards, we may infer that he was a man fitted 
 for bloody deeds, even though he has come down to 
 us as a model of knightly courtesy. Captain Ponce 
 de Leon might have stayed there, probably, as long as 
 he chose, but from the Indians who frequently came 
 across the channel separating the two islands, and 
 which is only ninety miles in breadth, he learned 
 that the mountains of Puerto Eico, which could be 
 seen in clear weather from the headlands of Higuey, 
 abounded in gold. 
 
 That they were most beautiful, and their sides 
 clothed with valuable woods, he also knew from his 
 own observations in 1498; so he sought and obtained 
 permission from Ovando to go across the channel 
 and investigate. Although terrible atrocities had 
 been perpetrated in Hispaniola since the first coming 
 of the Spaniards, yet the Indians of the neighboring 
 island seem to have had no knowledge of them, for 
 they received Ponce and his soldiers with unsuspicious 
 hospitality. Cacique Agueynaba, who resided at or 
 near the present town of Aguadilla, admitted the 
 Spaniard into the bosom of his family, and even 
 exchanged names with him, in token of friendship. 
 He also showed him his magnificent possessions, 
 abounding in agricultural wealth, and took him to 
 rivers that ran over sands of gold. This was suffi- 
 cient for Ponce, and leaving some of his companions 
 as guests of the cacique, he returned to Higuey and 
 organized his expedition, which landed in Puerto 
 Rico some time in the vear 1509. 
 
PUERTO RICO AND THE VIRGIN ISLES 225 
 
 The Indians at first were peaceable, and in fact 
 Ponce de Leon had more trouble with his own coun- 
 trymen than with the natives; for while he was effect- 
 ing the conquest Don Diego Columbus came out to 
 supersede Ovando, and appointed two of his friends to 
 the government of the island, one of them being the 
 redoubtable Miguel Diaz, the same who had married 
 
 Casa Blanca, Ponce de Leon's castle. 
 
 the Indian caciquess, and had led the Spaniards to the 
 mines of gold. King Ferdinand also named one Cris- 
 toval de Sotomayor as governor; but finally Ponce de 
 Leon prevailed and in the end was confirmed as ade- 
 lantado. Founding the first city on the north coast 
 and calling it Caparra, Ponce proceeded to extract 
 all the profit he could from his new possession, and be- 
 
226 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 came so oppressive that the Indians revolted. They 
 were of the same racial family as the natives of Ilis- 
 paniola, but ;is their island had been subject for main 
 years to the invasions of the Caribs they had become 
 somewhat schooled in warfare, and loved a fight 
 almost as much as the doughty old Spaniard him- 
 self. 
 
 Ponce had patched up a peace with his rival, So 
 
 tomayor, and assigned him a repartimiento of Indi- 
 ans, among them being the brother and successor to 
 Agueynaba, who had so well received the Spaniards 
 
 on their first visit, Sotomayor had fallen in love with 
 the cacique's sister, it seems, and the first, intimation of 
 trouble was from her; but the gallant hidalgo would 
 imi heed the warning, and so was ambushed and killed 
 while on Ins way to Caparra. The Indians were slow 
 at organizing a rebellion, because they had conceived 
 the idea that the Spaniards were immortal; hut, one 
 of the caciques, named Brayoan, shrewdly deter- 
 mined to test tins alleged immortality of the newcom- 
 ers, and abide by tile result. He ordered two of his 
 subjects who were carrying a Spaniard named Salzedo 
 through the forest to fall upon him at the first river 
 they should cross, and keep him under water a while. 
 This they did until the poor fellow was drowned, 
 when they took his body to the hank of the river and 
 watched by it until there was no longer any doubt 
 of his death. At once the slumbering flame of revolt 
 spread over the island, and soon five thousand war- 
 riors were marching upon Caparra. The force under 
 Ponce's command numbered less than a hundred, 
 but all the men were armed with arquebuses and in- 
 
PUERTO RICO ASb THE VIBOIH ISLES 227 
 
 i armor, bo that the mg 
 
 unequal. But it was not until Ag .aba hhx : 
 had a mortal wound that t. 
 
 broken and the Indian- nod to the mounta':.-. Their 
 fate was that of their race in other islands, and . 
 ma: meath the 
 
 d upon them by the Spaniards. Be- 
 fore that centnr gone "hey ha. . .-. 
 
 '* Mammiform " stones, Puerto Rico aboriginal earring*) 
 
 . and we know of them now only through 
 tradition and bv the reli left behind. T 
 
 relies, unique and rare , _ 
 
 and desirable objects for the "hat 
 
 lians had advanced farther on the road to 
 
228 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 civilization than either the Caribs of the Lesser An- 
 tilles, or their Arawak neighbors of Haiti. 
 
 By this time Ponce de Leon was well advanced 
 in vears, and would rather have spent the remainder 
 of his life in repose than in fighting Indians; but 
 snch was not to he his lot. There came to his ears 
 an Indian tale to the effect that there existed, in an 
 island of the Bahamas, a wonderful fountain, the 
 waters of which were not only healing, but capable 
 of restoring youth to the aged. The old warrior was 
 credulous; he had wealth, and he had vessels at his 
 command; so he set forth from his island in search 
 of Bimini, the Fountain of Youth. TTe sailed through 
 the Bahama chain, visiting, among other islands, the 
 veritable Guanahani where Columbus had landed in 
 149^, and questioning the natives about the object 
 of his search. They too had heard of Rimini, but 
 could not inform him exactly where it was, so he 
 kept on northward for many days until he sighted 
 the coast of a country the fields and trees of which 
 were gay with fragrant blossoms. T need hardly 
 sav that this land was none other than our own 
 Florida, which he so named on account of having 
 discovered it on Palm Sunday, or Pascua Florida. 
 TTe first sighted it in about the latitude of Saint 
 Augustine, and coasted southward until he reached 
 a group of islets which he called the Tortugas, be- 
 cause he and his men captured one hundred and 
 seventy sea turtles (Spanish, tortugas), besides four- 
 teen sea wolves and a great number of pelicans. 
 Returning to the Bahamas, he touched at an island 
 which lie named La Vieja, or the Old Woman, on 
 
PUERTO RICO AND THE VIRGIN ISLES 229 
 
 account of finding there as its sole inhabitant an 
 aged crone, who told him that she could guide him to 
 
 i * 
 
 Bimini, and was taken on board his vessel. With 
 this old dame as pilot the Spaniards were more for- 
 
230 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 tunate, for they found the famed Bimini, an island 
 of verdant fields and crystal springs; but the waters 
 of the latter, alas! possessed not the power of reju- 
 venescence. Disappointed in his main quest, Ponce 
 de Leon yet rated his discoveries so highly as to re- 
 port them in person at King Ferdinand's court, and 
 by his sovereign he was made adelantado of Bimini 
 and Florida. 
 
 If he had been younger, he might have made 
 more of his desultory achievements; but his years 
 wore upon him, as shown in the futile attempt he 
 made, in 1514, to subdue the Caribs. He left 
 Puerto Rico with three ships and a fine arma- 
 ment, a great display of confidence and flourish of 
 trumpets; but at the very first island at which he 
 touched for wood and water the party he had sent 
 ashore was ambushed by the Caribs, several men 
 killed and wounded, and others carried off as prisoners 
 to the mountains. This untoward event took place 
 at the island of Guadeloupe, where Columbus first 
 encountered these fierce Indians. Disgusted and dis- 
 heartened, Ponce de Leon set sail for home again, and 
 for several years after that sulked in his castle on the 
 coast. But in 1521, stirred to action by the stories 
 coming to his ears from Cuba and Mexico, he fitted 
 out a last expedition for the exploration and conquest 
 of Florida. His usual fortune attended him, for in 
 the very first encounter with the Indians he was 
 wounded in the thigh by an arrow. His men car- 
 ried him on board ship and set sail for Cuba, where 
 he died soon after arrival. The object of the ex- 
 pedition was abandoned and the remains of the gal- 
 
PUERTO RICO AND THE VIRGIN ISLES 231 
 
 lant old soldier were taken back to Puerto Rico, 
 where at last they rest, in a leaden case similar to 
 that which contains the ashes of Columbus in Santo 
 Domingo. 
 
 Now that Puerto Rico is an American possession, 
 any one may freely inspect the relics of Ponce de 
 Leon in that island, chief of which is the castle he 
 built, the " Casa Blanca," just before sailing on his 
 last voyage, and which is one of the finest structures 
 in the city of San Juan, with an inclosed garden 
 attached, having an outlook over the sea. 
 
 The city of San Juan, capital of Puerto Rico, 
 was founded about 1520. Governor Ponr-e having 
 removed thither from Caparra. It contains, besides 
 the castle erected by him, the finest fortifications to 
 be found in America; or, rather, the massive walls 
 contain within their line of circumvallation the city 
 itself — the only example we possess of the kind. 
 It- great castle, Morro, was begun not long after 
 Ponce de Leon's day. but was not completed until 
 15^4, and the entire system was only perfected by 
 1771. 
 
 The history of Puerto Rico, since the extinction 
 of the Indians, has been mainly uneventful, except 
 for the occasional attacks of pirates and the visits of 
 hurricanes. In 1520 the town of San German was 
 sacked by Trench pirates, and the coast region was 
 ravaged by the Caribs. Sir Trancis Drake and Sir 
 John Hawkins attacked San Juan on their last voy- 
 age to the West Indies, in 1595. The Dutch attacked 
 the capital in 1615, the English in 1678, and the 
 latter frequently made futile attempts to land here, 
 
232 
 
 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 their last being under Abercrombie in 1797. But 
 the massive walls of San Juan have withstood every 
 effort made to breach them during more than three 
 centuries, even resisting the terrible fire of modern 
 cannon, when Admiral Sampson bombarded the for- 
 tress in the summer of 1898. 
 
 Much might be said of Puerto Rico; but, as of 
 Cuba, a great deal has been already written, espe- 
 
 Aboriginal "mask" and "collar," Puerto Rico (carved stone). 
 
 cially since the Spanish-American War. It holds the 
 proud distinction of being the first island in the West 
 Indies to come under our flag, and, as the first of our 
 possessions in the American tropics, it will probably 
 be the theater of events having more than local sig- 
 nificance. When, in the summer of 1898, Puerto 
 Rico became a possession of the United States, the 
 flag of Spain had floated over it three hundred and 
 
PUERTO RICO AND THE VIRGIN ISLES 233 
 
 ninety years, never once having been lowered by a 
 foreign foe.* 
 
 Having acquainted ourselves with the most im- 
 portant historical events that have taken place in 
 the Bahamas and the Greater Antilles — Cuba, Ja- 
 maica, Haiti, Santo Domingo, and Puerto Rico — let 
 us now voyage a little farther, and visit the islands 
 lying between them and the north coast of South 
 America. 
 
 East of Puerto Pico we find an irregular group 
 of isles and islets known as the Virgins, comprising 
 Sombrero, Anegada, Virgin Gorda, Saint John, Saint 
 Thomas, and Santa Cruz. All are interesting — no 
 portion of the world more so. Anegada, for instance, 
 with its ponds fed from the sea by subterranean chan- 
 nels, and the resort of gorgeous flamingoes during 
 the rainy season; Virgin Gorda, with its gold- and 
 copper-veined mountains containing caves once the 
 resorts of pirates and smugglers; Tortola, which 
 derived its name from the gentle doves that inhabit 
 its cliffs; Saint John, the ancient abode of long-ex- 
 tinct Indians; and finally Saint Thomas, for more 
 than two hundred years a possession of the Danes. 
 All are English except the two last named, and in 
 their midst lies the great bay called after Sir Francis 
 Drake, who assembled his fleet here when on his 
 
 * The island is described in detail in the author's Puerto Rico 
 and its Resources; while Cuba and the Spanish-American War are 
 treated at length in his History of Spain for Young Readers; 
 both published in 1899. 
 
234 
 
 THE STOWED WEST INDIES 
 
 way to attack Hispaniola. Most of them have fine 
 and sheltered harbors, but ('specially Saint Thomas 
 and Saint John, on which account they have several 
 limes been near becoming an appanage of some 
 greater power than little Denmark. The Govern- 
 ment of the United States, in fact, once negotiated 
 
 , ■ ■ ■ ■- 
 
 
 W'yJ , ■ 
 
 Harbor of Charlotte Amalie, Saint Thomas. 
 
 their purchase (in 1867) at seven million five hun- 
 dred thousand dollars, but the project fell through. 
 There is a possibility that it may be revived; but 
 since the acquisition of Puerto Rico by the United 
 States the necessity for acquiring these islands as 
 coaling stations for American war vessels no longer 
 
PUERTO RICO AND THE VIRGIN ISLES 235 
 
 exists. Saint Thomas, though once the resort of buc- 
 caneers and all sorts of sea gentry, and so rich that 
 Spanish dollars were wheeled through its streets by 
 the barrow load, has in modern times become sad 
 and solitary. Its one bright jewel is its harbor, deep 
 and capacious, and here lies its one town of Char- 
 lotte Amalie, built on and at the bases of three 
 beautiful hills, each hill crowned by a picturesque 
 tower. 
 
 Xow, as we have not the space for an extended 
 description of the island's many attractive features, 
 I am going to devote a few lines to a harrowing 
 tale connected with one of those towers. It relates 
 to pirates and piracy, the island and its adjacent seas; 
 but I can not vouch for it as authentic. About the 
 middle of the seventeenth century one Blackbeard, 
 formerly known as Captain Teach, of Bristol, Eng- 
 land, took to the high seas for a living, and became the 
 scourge of the Spanish, Dutch, and English merchant 
 marine. He had discovered in the island of Saint 
 Thomas, then recently taken possession of by the 
 Danes, a retreat after a pirate's own heart, for it 
 abounded in hidden harbors, reef -inclosed inlets and 
 bays, and high promontories that commanded wide- 
 extended views of the surrounding seas. Between 
 Blackboard's retreat and the place where the Danes 
 had settled rose a hill about fifteen hundred feet in 
 height, which concealed the pirates' operations, and 
 so they landed at their leisure, carrying their guns 
 and stores ashore. The compatriots of the immortal 
 Hamlet had built a little red fort (which is still 
 there), mounted it with cast-iron cannon (in position 
 17 
 
236 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 to-day), and garrisoned it with a handful of stolid, 
 wooden-headed soldiers. 
 
 Hauling some cannon up to the hill crest, which 
 commanded not only the town of Charlotte Amalie 
 and its harbor, but all the outlying reefs and islets, 
 Blackbeard saw that he had the Danes at his mercy, 
 and is said to have chuckled gleefully. Right below 
 him, standing isolate on the central hill, was the old 
 tower I have mentioned, which, tradition states, was 
 built before the first Europeans arrived there. That 
 was the object of Blackboard's ambition, and if we 
 had been on the hill above the port, on the night suc- 
 ceeding the occupation of the crest, we might have 
 seen a band of villainous cutthroats carefully wend- 
 ing their way down the steeps in that direction. And 
 the next morning, when the peaceful Danes gazed 
 northward and saw the pirate flag, with its black 
 field, skull and crossbones, flying from the parapet 
 of the tower, we may well believe they were aston- 
 ished. They hastened to point their antiquated cast- 
 iron cannon at it, as a matter of course; but they 
 never fired them off, for the pirate captain threat- 
 ened to blow their fort " into smithereens " at the 
 first sign of offensive operations. So the base in- 
 truders were allowed, it is said, to stay there, right 
 in the center of his Danish Majesty's island, and dic- 
 tate terms to his high mightiness the governor. 
 After this little matter was amicably arranged, 
 Blackbeard brought down from the hill crest his 
 stores of ammunition and plunder; not forgetting, 
 you may be sure, his nineteen beautiful wives, whose 
 faces were veiled from the rude gaze of curious spec- 
 
PUERTO RICO AND THE VIRGIN ISLES 237 
 
 tators. And there they were cruelly incarcerated, 
 these nineteen captive brides of the pirate, and only 
 from the narrow slits in the tower could they look 
 out upon one of the fairest prospects in the Carib- 
 bean Sea. 
 
 Now it is not pretended, even by the great Black- 
 beard's eulogist, that these captive women loved their 
 master; indeed, they probably hated him. But what 
 could they do with a man who, when time hung 
 heavy on his hands, said to his crew: " Come down 
 into the hold, my merry men. I've got about a ton 
 of brimstone there; we'll light it, and have a little 
 inferno of our own " ? And as such a request was 
 itself in the nature of a command, emphasized by a 
 display of the pistols, cutlasses, and daggers which 
 Blackbeard wore belted about his person, his crew 
 always accepted the invitation with pretended alac- 
 rity. After getting them into the hold of his vessel, 
 with the hatches battened down, the genial pirate 
 would light sundry pots of brimstone, previously pre- 
 pared, and serenely await developments. As his 
 own constitution was habituated to diabolical pas- 
 times, Mr. Blackbeard seemed to inhale those fumes 
 sulphureous as if they were " gales from Araby," 
 and if one of his unfortunate messmates even ven- 
 tured to cough he was promptly knocked on the head. 
 And when at last, sneezing, coughing, sputtering, the 
 tortured men essayed a bolt for outer air, their jolly 
 captain simply crossed his hands, in each hand a 
 pistol, and fired indiscriminately into the crowd of 
 wretches, wounding and killing without compunction. 
 That was Blackboard's idea of " a good time " ; at 
 
238 
 
 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 all events, it was simply one of his lighter pastimes, 
 his really serious business being shown in making the 
 hapless sailors who fell into his hands " walk the 
 plank." 
 
 How long Blaekbeard held the tower tradition 
 does not state; but the time came when his dreadful 
 deeds brought upon him the combined fleets of the 
 nations which he had so long and violently outraged. 
 
 Date palms, Charlotte Amalie. 
 
 A sea dog born and bred, he could not long stay 
 ashore, even though securely intrenched in the island 
 of the Danes; so at last, leaving a portion of his 
 harem in the tower, he descended to the harp-shaped 
 harbor behind the mountain, and again ventured 
 forth upon the sea. He had better have stayed ashore 
 and dared fate in his tower, for it is matter of 
 history that he met his match in the person of a 
 
PUERTO RICO AND THE VIRGIN ISLES 239 
 
 valiant lieutenant in the English navy, who, after a 
 bloody fight, overcame him and his crew, and sailed 
 into a harbor on the coast of Virginia with the head 
 of Blackbeard at the end of his bowsprit. It was 
 the fiercest, most savage-looking head that has ever 
 been seen since the Medusa shook her snaky locks 
 and transformed living men to stone; for the face 
 was covered to the eyes with bushy whiskers, black 
 as night, and this enormous beard was adorned with 
 wax tapers and lighted matches, when its owner was 
 in life and in action, giving him an appearance noth- 
 ing less than diabolic. The shaggy head was taken 
 in triumph to shore, never more to wag in hideous 
 jest, nor to determine the fate of wretches by a nod. 
 " Blackboard's Tower " still stands on a hill above 
 the quaint town of Charlotte Amalie; the little red 
 fort is there, with its gaping old guns still pointing 
 skyward, and the Danes are there, stiff and formal 
 as of yore. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 IN THE VOLCANIC CHAIN 
 
 Southeast of the Virgin Isles lie the Lesser An- 
 tilles, extending in a curved line from 17° north 
 latitude to within ten degrees of the equator. In 
 these islands we find the perfection of insular 
 beauty; mountains of great altitude; cliffs shooting 
 ii]) abruptly from the sea, overhung with richest 
 tapestry of tropical vegetation; silver sands shaded 
 by bending palms — in very truth the realization 
 of an artist's dream. Owing to their altitude they 
 present not only every variety of climate, from 
 temperate to tropical, but every beautiful aspect of 
 vegetation, from the bananas and sugar canes of the 
 coast to the feathery tree ferns of the cool and pleas- 
 ant " high wood," with their giant trees hung with 
 a tangle of lianes and bush ropes. Each island, in 
 fact, is a partly submerged volcano, its sides, and even 
 the extinct crater, clothed with luxuriant growths. 
 Although there are several outlying islands, such as 
 Anegada, Saint Martin, and Saint Bartholomew, the 
 real chain of volcanic isles begins with a pair of 
 peaks belonging to the Dutch, named Saba and Saint 
 Eustatius. 
 
 Having camped in every one of them they seem 
 to me like old and loving friends, and it would be dif- 
 240 
 
IN THE VOLCANIC CHAIN 241 
 
 ficult for rue to name the island with the greatest 
 charms. Each isle has its attractions, some natural, 
 some historical, but there is not one we can omit from 
 notice. -Beginning with Saba, we find it an isolated 
 mountain peak sticking up out of the sea, with hardly 
 an accessible point; yet in its extinct crater, nearly 
 nine hundred feet above the sea, lives a little com- 
 munity of Dutch origin, the men of which, though 
 actually sky dwellers, are the best sailors anywhere 
 to be found. In seeking out this mountain hamlet, 
 which, by the way is called " Bottom," from being 
 situated in the bottom of the crater, I had to land 
 upon a surf-battered shore at the imminent risk of 
 my life, and climb nearly a thousand feet, up a steep, 
 almost perpendicular cliff, by means of a narrow, 
 tortuous path. 
 
 I do not know that Saba has any history worthy 
 of chronicling; but its sister isle of 'Statia ha- some- 
 thing in its keeping well worthy our investigation, 
 and likely to stir our pulses when discovered. Hold- 
 ing this secret in abeyance a bit, let me say that, 
 like Saba, it consists mainly of a mountain shooting 
 straight up out of the sea, but with longer slopes, 
 deeper hollows, and more accessible -bore. Eustatius 
 is celebrated for its beautiful volcano, symmetrical 
 and magnificent, and for its deep crater hole. The 
 summit may be reached by a few hours' climbing, 
 when one may not only stand on the rery lip of the 
 crater, but descend to the lowest part of the concavity. 
 It is about a thousand feet deep, and so long has the 
 old volcano been quiet that the sides and bottom are 
 lined with great tree-, where the wood pigeons coo all 
 
242 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 day, and beneath which the agoutis and other tropical 
 animals hide from the light of the sun. At night the 
 bats and owls flit across the black space, the tall trees 
 sway and moan, and hollow sounds come out of the 
 crater. I know this to be so, because I once passed 
 a night camped on the crater brim, in order to study 
 the nocturnal phenomena. 
 
 To the inhabitants of the island the mountain is 
 known as the Quill, and the crater as the Punch 
 Bowl — the latter probably derived from the fact that 
 many merry parties in times past have visited and 
 lunched here. The island is owned by the Dutch, 
 but English is spoken here as well as in Saba. In 
 the latter island may still be found descendants of 
 Dutch sailors who sailed with Admiral Van Tromp, 
 who cruised with a broom at his masthead in token 
 that he had swept the seas. In Saint Eustatius are 
 many relics of the olden time, when the riches of the 
 East Indies and Europe were made tributary to the 
 West. Once there were fine plantations here, and 
 the surface of the plains was covered with waving 
 sugar cane ; but now there is neither estate, nor cane, 
 nor toiling slave: all have passed into the limbo of 
 departed glory and greatness. 
 
 Now for the historical tradition 'Statia so proud- 
 ly cherishes. You would not expect to find the his- 
 tory of our early colonies linked with that of this 
 diminutive islet, obscure and forgotten, on the 
 outer verge of the Caribbees; yet so it is. It is a 
 bit of neglected history, but it is authentic: that 
 the flag of our colonies — subsequently, in altered 
 guise, the emblem of our nation — was first recog- 
 
' i 
 
 Ml 
 
 
244 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 nized by a foreign power in the harbor of Orange, 
 Saint Eustatius! 
 
 As Orange was a neutral port, and from the out- 
 break of the Revolution seemed disposed in favor of 
 the revolting colonies, many American privateers be- 
 took themselves thither for supplies, and among them 
 a brigantine, the Andrew Doria, from Baltimore, 
 carrying fourteen four-pounders and manned with a 
 crew of one hundred men. She sailed into the road- 
 stead of Orange on the 16th of November, 1770, fly- 
 ing the newly adopted American flag. Where her 
 captain or owners obtained this flag has not been 
 ascertained ; but that it was carried by the saucy pri- 
 vateer, and that the fort of Orange responded to the 
 vessel's salute with thirteen shots, in honor of the 
 thirteen rebellious colonies — all this transpired in the 
 correspondence carried on between the governor and 
 con miander of the island and that of the neighboring 
 island of Saint Kitt's. 
 
 This governor of 'Statia was one Johannes de 
 Graef, a doughty Hollander of good family, who, 
 responding under date of December 23, 1770, to 
 the English governor's remonstrance against " this 
 insult to his Britannic Majesty," denied that any 
 piratical vessel had received aid or comfort at his 
 port. But he added, " As to the salute to the An- 
 drew Doria, I flatter myself that, if my masters exact 
 it, I shall be able to give such an account as shall be 
 satisfactory." 
 
 An honest rejoinder, though a diplomatic one. 
 But the matter did not end here, for, the correspond- 
 ence being referred to higher authority in 1777, the 
 
IN THE VOLCANIC CHAIN 245 
 
 British ambassador at The Hague presented a me- 
 morial to the High and Mighty States-General; de- 
 manding a formal disavowal of the salute to the brig- 
 antine in the port of \Statia, and the discharge and 
 recall of the governor, Johannes de Graef. 
 
 Their High Mightinesses answered by a counter 
 memorial, disavowing any intention of an implied 
 recognition of American belligerency or independ- 
 ence, and the case was allowed to rest. But, while 
 allowed to lapse for a while, it was eventually made 
 a casus belli between the two countries and caused 
 a rupture of their peaceful relations. England issued 
 a manifesto in December, 1780, setting forth that 
 the Dutch colonies, and particularly Saint Eustatius, 
 had afforded protection and assistance to her rebel- 
 lious subjects; had allowed their privateers to refit, 
 to purchase arms and ammunition, and had bought 
 their prizes taken at sea, in " violation of as clear 
 and solemn a stipulation as can be made." 
 
 The upshot was that secret instructions were sent 
 to Admiral Lord Rodney, then at Xew York, who 
 immediately sailed for the West Indies, and suddenly 
 appeared off 'Statia in February, 1781. Governor 
 De Oraef was unaware of any rupture between his 
 Government and England, nor was there any at that 
 time, and perforce complied with Rodney's sum- 
 mons to surrender. The island was then at the 
 height of a prosperity never regained, its ware- 
 houses filled to bursting with -tore-, and the en- 
 tire beach in front of Port Orange covered with to- 
 bacco and sugar. The value of the plunder taken 
 bv Rodney was estimated bv him at more than fifteen 
 
240 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 million dollars, exclusive of the shipping then in port, 
 amounting to two hundred and fifty sail, many of the 
 vessels richly laden; a thirty-two-gun frigate, and 
 some smaller sloops of war. The reprehensible con- 
 duct of Lord Rodney, and General Yaughan in com- 
 mand of the land forces, in attacking an almost de- 
 fenseless island before its Government was made 
 aware of the breaking out of hostilities, was made a 
 subject of official inquiry in the British Parliament. 
 Mr. Burke moved that their actions were dishonest; 
 but his motion was finally rejected by a vote of one 
 hundred and sixty-three to eighty-nine. So it seems 
 there were many Englishmen who believed the colo- 
 nial Hollanders were unfairly dealt with and had 
 justice on their side. But it mattered not; they 
 never recovered their lost property, nor even their 
 lost prestige; their port is to-day gone to ruin, only 
 a few people occupying the remains of the town. 
 
 Within sight, to the southward, lies the English 
 island of Saint Christopher, commonly called Saint 
 Kitt's, the jealousy of whose governor brought about 
 'Statia's ruin. It is the mother colony of the French 
 and English islands, having been settled in 1028 by 
 adventurers of both nationalities. These settlers 
 were dispersed by the Spaniards in 1030, but the 
 following year many of them returned, and, as they 
 had driven the native Caribs from the island after a 
 great battle, for many years the French and Eng- 
 lish lived together in peace, dividing the territory 
 between them. Toward the latter part of the cen- 
 tury they participated in the contentions of their 
 respective nations, and strife broke out, hundreds 
 
218 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 being slain. By the Peace of Utrecht, in 1713, 
 the island was ceded to the British crown, and 
 afterward attained a great prosperity; but in 1782 
 the English, attacked by an overpowering force of 
 French, under the Marquis de Bouille and the Count 
 de Grasse, were compelled to surrender. The vic- 
 tory was rendered fruitless, however, by the Treaty 
 of Versailles (1783), when the island was restored 
 to Great Britain, in whose possession it has ever 
 since remained. 
 
 A very beautiful island, it is also one of the most 
 fertile in the West Indies, its soil being considered 
 the finest to be found anywhere for sugar cane. 
 A rich and populous belt entirely surrounds a wild 
 and shaggy mountain district, within which is the 
 celebrated Mount Misery, rising to a height of four 
 thousand feet, clothed in glorious vegetation and with 
 a crater well worth a climb to see. A reminder of 
 the historic past here is Brimstone Hill, a detached 
 peak seven hundred and fifty feet in height, near 
 the western shore of the island, crowned by a forti- 
 fication so strong that it was once styled the " Gibral- 
 tar of America." But to-day it is well-nigh disman- 
 tled, and the millions that were spent on it were worse 
 than thrown away. It has never served any good 
 use at all, for no enemy in recent times has ever come 
 within reach of its obsolete old guns, as nobody has 
 wanted the island since the English took it from the 
 French, more than a hundred years ago. 
 
 Now, though the fort on Brimstone Hill is de- 
 serted, yet should you approach it stealthily, with- 
 out making a noise — if that were possible — you 
 
IN THE VOLCANIC CHAIN 249 
 
 might see humanlike animals disporting upon its bat- 
 tlements and peering through the loopholes. They 
 are not men, but monkeys, that now garrison this 
 deserted "Gibraltar" of Saint Kitt's; or in other 
 words, the " Kittefonians " of the forest. It is a curi- 
 ous fact that there is no record extant of any monkeys 
 having been found by the first settlers in the West In- 
 dies; and another fact is that the only species now 
 seen there are confined to the islands of Saint Kitt's 
 and Grenada, both pertaining to the Lesser Antilles, 
 or the Caribbees. And they are not indigenous, or 
 true American monkeys, either; for they came over 
 from Africa many, many years ago, and are de- 
 scended from African ancestors which escaped to 
 the forest and ran wild. Their existence here was 
 long a puzzle to naturalists until I secured the skins 
 of some, in 1880, and sent them to the United States, 
 when it was seen that they belonged to the Old 
 World, their chief distinguishing characteristic being 
 a long, stiff tail, while the caudal appendage of 
 American monkeys is prehensile. 
 
 If it were within the scope of our inquiry into the 
 origin of the West Indians to include these " little 
 brothers " of the forest wilds, I might narrate my 
 adventures while seeking them in their homes. At 
 any rate, it may not seem irrelevant to mention that 
 they now constitute a considerable majority of the 
 Kittefonians; that they range the woods in troops, 
 and descend from their forest fastnesses upon the 
 cane fields and commit great depredations. 
 
 Between Saint Kitt's and the adjacent island of 
 Nevis is said to be a submarine passage through which 
 
250 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 the monkeys pass from one to the other ; at all events, 
 the same species is found in the woods of the latter. 
 Nevis is historically interesting as the birthplace of 
 Alexander Hamilton, 1757; and as the island in 
 which Lord Nelson was married in 1787, while cap- 
 tain of his Majesty's ship Boreas. 
 
CHAPTEK XIX 
 
 HISTORIC BATTLEFIELDS 
 
 During more than two hundred years the French 
 and English battled for the possession of the Lesser 
 Antilles. For nearly a century after the genius of 
 Columbus had added these tropical islands to the 
 holdings of the Spanish crown, Spain denied all 
 rights of navigation in the Caribbean Sea to other 
 powers. She held it to be hers by right of discovery, 
 and she purposed to hold it by might of ships and 
 men; but about thirty years after San Salvador was 
 discovered she found the French corsairs there 
 already becoming annoying. They stealthily entered 
 this body of water which she regarded as a mare 
 dausum, or inclosed sea, and preyed upon her fat old 
 galleons sailing up from the Isthmus with their rich 
 freights of silver and gold. As early as 1529, or 
 only thirty-seven years after the discovery, a French 
 fleet had penetrated the sacred confines, and the 
 Spaniards were thrown into consternation by the 
 arrival of an English vessel at Santo Domingo. In 
 1538 a bloody sea fight took place between a French 
 corsair and a Spanish war ship; and three years later 
 the French and English, combined, inflicted heavy 
 losses upon the galleons, though the West Indies 
 18 251 
 
o;>^ THE STORIED WEST [NDIES 
 
 had then begun to decline, and the Peruvian and 
 Mexican mines were failing somewhat. 
 
 The efforts of other nations to deprive Spain of 
 her conquests were onlv desultory, however, until 
 
 near the end of the sixteenth century; and it was 
 not until 157.} that Sir Francis Drake, that pirate 
 o( high degree, came here with a well-defined inten- 
 tion of inflicting all the harm he could to Spanish 
 cities, towns, and treasure ships. At last, in despair 
 of keeping others out, Spain seems to have relin- 
 quished her rights to nearly all the islands south- 
 ward from Puerto EUeo, while the French and Eng- 
 lish, ignoring her completely, fought between them- 
 selves as to who should secure these rich fields for 
 colonization. 
 
 The history of Martinique, for example, will suf- 
 fice for that of nearly all. Though discovered by 
 Columbus in 1502, it remained virgin territory until 
 colonized by the French in 1635; but it was four 
 times seized by the British — in 1762, 1781, 1704, 
 and ISO!) — and finally restored to the French in IS 1 1, 
 by whom it has ever since been held. Of the score 
 and more of isles and islets which France won by 
 the sword and settled with her colonists, less than half 
 a dozen remain to her now within the confines of the 
 Caribbean Sea. Thousands of lives and millions of 
 treasure have been wasted in acquiring and defend- 
 ing those islands of the Lesser Antilles, yet to -t lav 
 not one is a profitable possession to the nation own- 
 ing it. 
 
 Of the two large islands owned by France in the 
 West Indies, that of Guadeloupe is of greater area 
 
HISTORIC BATTLEFIELDS 258 
 
 than Martinique, the former lying between the paral- 
 lels of L0° and 17" north latitude, the latter two 
 degrees farther south, with the English island of Do- 
 minica midway the two. Guadeloupe really com 
 
 prises two islands: an immense mountain mass, willi 
 
 beautiful valleys and forest-covered hills, an extinct 
 volcano, hot springs, and coffee plantations; separated 
 by ;i narrow creels from a vast tract of lowland, <-<>v 
 ered with sugar estates, level of surface and rich of 
 soil. 
 
 Martinique is about forty miles in length by 
 twenty in breadth— like all the others, a congeries of 
 mountains thrust up from the ocean depths, and co"v 
 ered from mountain top to water side with tropical 
 vegetation. Guadeloupe has two important cities, 
 Basse Terre and Point a Pitre; Martinique also two, 
 Saint Pierre and Port do France, the former the 
 commercial metropolis, the latter the seat of govern 
 
 men). Unlike its sister city, which lies on an open 
 
 roadstead, Port de France (formerly known as Fort 
 
 Royal) is sheltered in a deep hay, near the entrance 
 to which Stands the fortress of Saint Louis, hnilt two 
 oenturies ago. It was once a line city, and occupied 
 by people whose manners and costumes were pat 
 
 terned after (hose of La Belle France; but (ire and 
 hurricane have done destructive work, and the Mood 
 
 of blacks from the interior has obliterated nearly all 
 
 evidences of refinement. Still, its site is handsome, 
 
 and in the center of its s<ir<ni<\ or park, is a statue of 
 the only daughter of America who rose to joint occu 
 p:incy of Hie throne of Prance Josephine, the first 
 wife of Napoleon Poiiaparfe. Ahoiit this statue, of 
 
HISTORIC BATTLEFIELDS 255 
 
 pure white marble, more than in the island itself, 
 perhaps, the stranger's interest centers. An inscrip- 
 tion tells us that the birthplace of this illustrious 
 woman lies just across the bay, at Trois Ilet, only 
 four miles distant. 
 
 It was as a naturalist, seeking rare birds, that I 
 made my first visit to Martinique in 1878, and I 
 lived a while at the plantation of La Pagerie, Jose- 
 phine's birthplace, gathering there many a tradition 
 relating to her early years, and from the records of 
 Trois Ilet extracting information which, even at this 
 late date, may not be amiss in this connection. 
 
 When the English attacked Martinique in 1762, 
 there existed here a society which could boast con- 
 nection with the highest and noblest of France. 
 Among other indigent noblemen who had left the 
 land of their birth for ventures in the colonies was 
 one Tascher, who came out here in the year 1726. 
 He prospered from the beginning, and when his first 
 son was born he had large estates of sugar cane, which 
 were bestowed upon him at his marriage. Settling 
 upon the estate of La Pagerie, across the great bay 
 from Fort Koyal and the fortress, Joseph Tascher de 
 la Pagerie devoted himself to the raising of cane 
 and coffee. 
 
 In 1757 there arrived in the island, as lieutenant 
 governor of all the French Antilles, the Marquis de 
 Beauharnais. The name was then well known in 
 France, as there were five of that family, officers 
 in service, on the naval registers. On June 10, 
 1760, there was baptized, in the church of Saint 
 Louis at Fort Koyal, the governor's son, Alexandre 
 
256 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 de Beauharnais, to whom Madame de Renaudine, 
 Joseph Tascher's sister, stood godmother. 
 
 Joseph was married in November, 1761, to the 
 daughter of an ancient family resident here. Within 
 a few months he was compelled to hasten to the 
 defense of the island against the English, in which 
 he acquitted himself bravely, and won the regard 
 of the British commander, who permitted him to 
 retire to his estate. From the hills above her 
 house Madame Tascher witnessed the storming and 
 capture of Fort Saint Louis and the surrender of 
 the French force, in which her husband served; so 
 it was amid scenes of great perturbation that the 
 married life of this young couple began. The house 
 in which Josephine was born, on the 23d of June, 
 1763, was standing at the time of my first visit, 
 though in ruins. Here, amid friends and slaves, this 
 lovely Creole, who subsequently became one of the 
 most famous of women, passed the happiest years of 
 her life, but not without some sad experiences. 
 When she was four years of age her father's resi- 
 dence was destroyed by a hurricane, and the family 
 took shelter in the building used as a sugar mill, 
 which was her home for ten years more. The Tasch- 
 ers were wealthy, as the islanders computed wealth, 
 having one hundred and fifty slaves and vast acreage 
 on the hill slopes of Trois Ilet; but the father never 
 rebuilt the dwelling house, his spirit seemingly being 
 crushed by repeated reverses. 
 
 It was a disappointment to Monsieur and Madame 
 Tascher that no son was born to them, but they named 
 their second daughter Josephine, in honor of the first 
 
HISTORIC BATTLEFIELDS 25? 
 
 of the father's family who had come to this hemi- 
 sphere. At the age of ten she was sent to school 
 at Fort Royal, passing her time there and on the 
 plantation until she arrived at the age of sixteen. 
 Her union with young Beanharnais seems to have 
 been brought about by her aunt, Madame de Ren- 
 audine, Alexandre's godmother. They were be- 
 trothed before he left for France, whither Josephine 
 followed, and where they were married in December, 
 1779. 
 
 In June, 1788, Josephine came back to Marti- 
 nique with her daughter Hortense, having separated 
 from her husband, and two years later she returned 
 to France, never again looking upon the scenes of her 
 childhood. There, after experiencing the horrors of 
 the. Reign of Terror, after Beauharnais was exe- 
 cuted, and she herself was imprisoned, narrowly 
 escaping the guillotine, she met and was wedded to 
 Bonaparte, who like herself was island born, and 
 not native to the soil of France. 
 
 A few miles from the plantation is the little 
 bourg of Trois Ilet, where stands the church in 
 which the future Empress of France was baptized, 
 and where her father and mother are buried. This, 
 in brief, is the history of Josephine's connection with 
 Martinique; and after this digression (the only ex- 
 cuse for which is to afford comparison between the 
 obscurity of her birth and the elevated station to 
 which she attained) we will follow the general trend 
 of events toward the close of the eighteenth century. 
 
 The English wrested nearly all the Eesser Antilles 
 from the French; but when in 1768 the Marquis de 
 
258 
 
 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 Bouille was appointed governor of Guadeloupe and 
 commander in chief of all the French forces in the 
 Caribbees, affairs took on a different aspect. After 
 the breaking out of the war of 1778, in conjunction 
 with different naval commanders, he took nearly all 
 the islands back again, his vigorous campaign cul- 
 minating in the capture of Saint Ivitt's, the fall of 
 Brimstone Hill, and defeat of an English fleet under 
 
 The church at Trois Ilet. 
 
 Admiral Hood. This commander was that same gal- 
 lant Bouille who assisted Louis XVI in his futile 
 attempt to escape from France and the guillotine, 
 and who was later compelled to flee for his life from 
 the country for which he had so long and so vainly 
 fought. 
 
 Lying just south of Martinique, and separated 
 from it by a sea channel thirty miles in width, is the 
 island of Saint Lucia, where thousands of brave men, 
 
HISTORIC BATTLEFIELDS 259 
 
 led by misguided commanders, have left their bones 
 and drenched with their lifeblood the soil of every 
 hillside on its northern shores. Like the other isles 
 of the Caribbees, it was a " bone of contention " be- 
 tween England and France for nearly two centuries; 
 but the most sanguinary contest took place here in 
 the year 1778. The British troops were commanded 
 by brave General Meadows, the French by gallant 
 and dashing D'Estaing. Intrenched upon the 
 " vigie " of Castries (which the English of to-day 
 are fortifying against the world), the British awaited 
 attack. While a murderous fire was kept up from 
 their ships, the French, led by D'Estaing and the 
 Marquis de Bouille, briskly advanced to the charge. 
 They were at first enfiladed with terrible effect, 
 but, notwithstanding the havoc, they charged with 
 impetuosity, the British suffering them to advance 
 close to their intrenchments, and then receiving 
 them at the bayonet's point. Though the French 
 were repulsed, they advanced again and again with 
 incredible bravery, but at the third charge were com- 
 pletely broken and retired in disorder, leaving on 
 the field four hundred killed and eleven hundred 
 wounded — a number in excess of the force they had 
 attacked! The chivalrous D'Estaing asked and re- 
 ceived permission to bury his dead and recover his 
 wounded, making himself accountable for them as 
 prisoners of war, and then left the island. Sailing 
 southward he took the islands of Grenada and To- 
 bago, where the British were not so strongly forti- 
 fied, and thence went to the assistance of the Ameri- 
 can colonists. 
 
260 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 This is but one of the episodes of that war be- 
 tween France and England which brought about the 
 defeat and humiliation of the former and the ulti- 
 mate supremacy of the latter, and by which the his- 
 tory of our thirteen colonies was inextricably inter- 
 woven with that of these far-distant Caribbee Isles. 
 
 These two great nations sent thither their largest 
 fleets and greatest captains — Howe and D'Estaing, 
 Rodney and De Grasse — and not mere local fortunes, 
 but world destinies, hung upon the issue of events in 
 this obscure quarter of the globe. Rodney had been 
 held accountable for the surrender of Lord Corn- 
 wallis, having failed to go to his aid on account of the 
 plunder of 'Statia; but he soon made amends by the 
 detention and subsequent destruction of the French 
 fleet under De Grasse. Since the great naval battle 
 that ensued between these commanders has such a 
 bearing upon international history, I shall borrow 
 the description by a historian of established reputa- 
 tion, James Anthony Froude, who a few years before 
 his death visited the Caribbees, and who says: 
 
 " The West Indies were then under the charge of 
 Rodney, whose brilliant successes had already made 
 his name famous. He had torn the Lesser Antilles 
 from the French ; he had punished the Hollanders for 
 joining the coalition by taking Saint Eustatius. The 
 patriot party at home [in England], led by Fox and 
 Burke, were ill pleased with these victories; Burke 
 denounced Rodney as he had denounced Warren Hast- 
 ings, and he was called home to answer for himself. 
 In his absence Demerara, the Leeward Islands, and 
 Saint Eustatius itself were captured or recovered by 
 
HISTORIC BATTLEFIELDS 261 
 
 the enemy. The French fleet, now supreme in the 
 western waters, blockaded Lord Cornwallis at York- 
 town and forced him to capitulate. The Spaniards 
 had fitted out a fleet at Havana, and Count de 
 Grasse, the French admiral, fresh from the victori- 
 ous thunder of the American cannon, hastened back 
 to refurnish himself at Martinique, intending to join 
 the Spaniards, tear Jamaica from us [the English], 
 and drive us finally and completely out of the West 
 Indies. One chance remained. Rodney was ordered 
 back to his station, and he went at his best speed, 
 taking all the ships with him which could then be 
 spared. It was midwinter, but he forced his way to 
 Barbadoes in five weeks, spite of equinoctial storms. 
 The Whig orators were indignant. . . . The Govern- 
 ment yielded, and a peremptory order followed on 
 Rodney's track : ' Strike your flag and come home ! ' 
 Had that fatal command reached him, Gibraltar 
 would have fallen and Hastings's Indian empire 
 would have melted into air! But Rodney knew that 
 his time was short and he had been prompt to use it. 
 Before the order came the severest battle in English 
 annals had been fought and won; De Grasse was a 
 prisoner, and the French fleet was scattered into 
 wreck and ruin! 
 
 " De Grasse had refitted in the Martinique dock- 
 yards. He himself and every officer in his fleet was 
 confident that England was at last done for, and that 
 nothing was left but to gather the fruits of the vic- 
 tory which was theirs already. . . . All the Lesser 
 Antilles except Saint Lucia were his own. . . . He 
 held them all in proud possession: a string of gems, 
 
262 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 each island large as or larger than the Isle of Man, 
 rising up with high volcanic peaks, clothed from base 
 to crest with forest, carved into deep ravines, and 
 fringed with luxuriant plains. In Saint Lucia alone 
 the English flag still new, and Rodney lay there in 
 the harbor of Castries. On April 8, 1782, the signal 
 came from the north end of the island that the 
 French fleet had sailed. Martinique is in sight of 
 Saint Lucia, and the rock is still shown from which 
 Rodney had watched day by day for signs that they 
 were moving. They were out at last, and he in- 
 stantly weighed and followed. The air was light, 
 and De Grasse was under the highlands of Dominica 
 before Rodney came up with him. Both fleets were 
 becalmed, and the English were scattered and 
 divided by a current which runs between the islands. 
 The two following days the fleets maneuvered in 
 sight of each other. On the night of the 11th Rod- 
 ney made signal for the whole fleet to go south under 
 press of sail. The French thought he was flying. 
 He tacked at two in the morning, and at daybreak 
 found himself where he wished to be — with the 
 French fleet on his lee quarter. ... In number 
 of ships the fleets were equal; in size and comple- 
 ment of crew the French were immensely superior; 
 and besides the ordinary ships' companies they had 
 twenty thousand soldiers on board, who were to be 
 used in the conquest of Jamaica. . . . The Eng- 
 lish admiral was aware that his country's fate was 
 in his hands. It was one of those supreme moments 
 which great men dare to use and small men tremble 
 at. He had the advantage of the wind and could 
 
HISTORIC BATTLEFIELDS 263 
 
 force a battle or decline it, as lie pleased. With clear 
 daylight the signal to engage was flying from the 
 masthead of the Formidable, Rodney's ship. At 
 seven in the morning, April 12th, the whole fleet 
 bore down obliquely on the French line, cutting it 
 directly in two. Rodney led in person. Having passed 
 through and broken up their order he tacked again, 
 still keeping the wind. The French, thrown into con- 
 fusion, were unable to re-form, and the battle re- 
 solved itself into a number of separate engagements, 
 in which the English had the choice of position. 
 
 " Rodney in passing through the enemy's lines 
 the firsf time had exchanged broadsides with the 
 Glorieux, a seventy-four, at close range. He had shot 
 away her masts and bowsprit, and had left her a 
 bare hull; her flag, however, still flying, being nailed 
 to a splintered spar. So he left her unable at least to 
 stir, and after he had gone about came himself yard- 
 arm to yardarm with the superb Ville de Paris, the 
 pride of France, the largest ship in the then known 
 world, where De Grasse commanded in person. 
 
 " All day long the cannon roared. One by one 
 the French ships struck their flags or fought on till 
 they foundered and went down. The carnage on 
 board them was terrible, crowded as they were with 
 troops. Fourteen thousand were reckoned to have 
 been killed, besides the prisoners. The Ville de 
 Paris surrendered last, fighting desperately after 
 hope was gone, till her masts were so shattered that 
 they could not bear a sail, and her decks above 
 and below were littered over with mangled limbs. 
 De Grasse gave up his sword to Rodney on the 
 
264 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 Formidable's quarter-deck. The gallant Glorieux, 
 unable to fly and seeing the battle lost, hauled down 
 her flag, but not till the undisabled remnants of her 
 crew were too few to throw the dead into the sea. 
 Other ships took fire and blew up. Half the French 
 fleet were either taken or sunk; the rest crawled 
 away for the time, most of them to be picked up 
 like crippled birds. 
 
 " So on that memorable day was the English em- 
 pire saved ! Peace followed, but it was ' peace with 
 honor.' The American colonies were lost; but Eng- 
 land kept her West Indies [a rather poor exchange] ; 
 her flag still floated over Gibraltar; the hostile 
 strength of Europe all combined had failed to twist 
 Britannia's ocean scepter from her: she sat down 
 maimed and bleeding, but the wreath had not been 
 torn from her brow, she was still sovereign of the 
 seas! " * 
 
 * From The English in the West Indies. By James Anthony 
 Proude. 
 
CHAPTEK XX 
 
 BAKBADOES, TOBAGO, AND TRINIDAD 
 
 That great naval encounter, which has been 
 called one of the decisive battles of the world, took 
 place under the lee of beautiful Dominica, and in 
 the channel between that island and Guadeloupe. It 
 is worthy of note that these terrible struggles be- 
 tween the French and English were nearly always 
 futile, for the victors rarely retained what their 
 hard-fought battles had won. Much of the spoil 
 of 'Statia was afterward captured on the high seas 
 by the French; nearly all the islands they had 
 taken were restored to the English; and the splen- 
 did Ville de Paris, De Grasse's flagship, together 
 with other prizes, was sunk in a hurricane off Port 
 Royal the same summer that she was taken by 
 Rodney. Saint Lucia, at one time the only island 
 of the Lesser Antilles uncaptured by the French, 
 was awarded to them by the Treaty of Versailles in 
 1783; but, retaken by Abercrombie in 1797, has ever 
 since remained in English possession. 
 
 But every island in the archipelago treasures the 
 heroic deeds of those forgotten worthies of the past. 
 Xear and to the south of Fort Royal, Martinique, 
 rises huge, sea-surrounded Diamond Rock, which 
 once upon a time, as it commanded the entrance to 
 
 265 
 
266 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 the port, was seized and fortified by sailors under the 
 command of Lord Howe after the capture of Saint 
 Lucia. It is five hundred feet in height, with sides 
 nearly perpendicular; but those brave British tars 
 swarmed to its summit, and there, with scarce room 
 enough for a foothold, they mounted several guns, 
 with which they peppered away at every French craft 
 that hove in sight, sending some of them to the 
 bottom of the sea. But they were provisioned for a 
 twelvemonth only, and when their supplies failed 
 
 "His Majesty's ship Diamond Rock." 
 
 they had to capitulate, as their commander sailed 
 away and left them to their fate. They did so, how- 
 ever, with all the honors of war, as defenders of " his 
 Majesty's ship Diamond Rock " ! Near the south- 
 ern tip of Saint Lucia rises a pair of miniature moun- 
 tains between two and three thousand feet in height, 
 called the Pitons, which, like Diamond Rock, are iso- 
 lated from the main island, and which also the British 
 at one time attempted to hold and fortify. But their 
 steep acclivities were infested with that terrible ser- 
 
BARBADOES, TOBAGO, AND TRINIDAD 267 
 
 pent called the fer-de-lance, and the unfortunate 
 sailors sent to mount the guns were fatally bitten, 
 one after another, and rolled into the sea; so the 
 attempt was abandoned. 
 
 Next south of Saint Lucia, and in line with the 
 general curve of the Caribbees, lies the island of 
 Saint Vincent, with a volcano, now quiescent, that 
 has the honor of being the last from which an erup- 
 tion occurred in the West Indies. Its crater lake, 
 twenty-five hundred feet above the sea, is a wonder 
 worth visiting; and at one time, while seeking new T 
 birds, I camped a week in a cave on its brim, observ- 
 ing with intense enjoyment the phenomena of Nature 
 at this altitude. On the " windward " side of Saint 
 Vincent reside the last remnants of the black Caribs, 
 who a hundred years ago gave battle stoutly to the 
 British invaders of their tropical domain. They 
 differ from the only other family of Caribs (in Do- 
 minica) in being very dark of hue, and this is ex- 
 plained by the wrecking of a slave ship here in the 
 latter part of the seventeenth century, the survivors 
 of the disaster having intermarried with the native 
 Indians. In the year 1785, after committing great 
 cruelties, the black Caribs were subdued, the major 
 portion of them expatriated to the coast of Honduras, 
 and their chief, Black Bulla, gibbeted alive in chains, 
 suffering terrible torments for a week before he died. 
 
 Southwardly stretching from Saint Vincent is an- 
 other chain of isles and islets called the Grenadines, 
 terminated by the larger island of Grenada. The 
 Grenadines present the appearance of mountains 
 based deep below the surface of the sea, and only their 
 19 
 
268 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 tops protruding; but Grenada has not been so exten- 
 sively invaded by the waters, and its chief harbor 
 seems to have been the crater of an extinct volcano. 
 
 Here, also, we are reminded of the once-dominant 
 Caribs by the names of different places, as, for in- 
 stance, the " Morne des Sauteurs," applied to a great 
 cliff over which the last survivors were driven, and 
 leaped to their death in the war of extermination. 
 
 The islands of the Caribbees, or Lesser Antilles, 
 appear on the map as segments of two concentric 
 circles, the inner one volcanic, mountainous, compris- 
 ing the main chain ; the outer of coral formation, low- 
 lying and fragmentary. The most important of these 
 outlying or " windward " islands is Barbadoes, about 
 ninety miles to the eastward of Saint Vincent, all 
 alone in the ocean. It was discovered by some 
 Portuguese, who, finding here a luxuriant growth 
 of wild fig trees, from the limbs of which great 
 masses of filaments depended, called it Barbadoes, or 
 Bearded. When first visited by the English in 1605 
 there were no inhabitants, the natives having been 
 killed or driven away, and the crew of the Olive 
 Blossom, which had been fitted out by Sir Oliph 
 Leigh, " a worshipful knight of Kent," took posses- 
 sion by erecting a cross with the inscription " James 
 King of England and this island." They did not 
 tarry longer than was necessary to provision their 
 vessel, though the island was extraordinarily fertile, 
 wild pigs, parrots, and pigeons were abundant, and 
 the sea abounded with fish of every sort. 
 
 It was not until 1624, or the year following the 
 planting of an English colony at Saint Kitt's, that 
 
BARBADOES, TOBAGO, AND TRINIDAD 269 
 
 Barbadoes was settled. Containing large and level 
 tracts of the richest soil in the West Indies, Barbadoes 
 from the very first flourished exceedingly, and in 
 1650 it had a white population almost as large as it 
 contains to-day, with a great number of negro slaves. 
 It was then a royal and loyal colony, and so devoted 
 to the interests of deposed King Charles that when 
 Lord Protector Cromwell sent out a fleet and an 
 army to bring its people to terms they made a stout 
 resistance. In 1657, in addition to the negro slaves, 
 the planters purchased several thousand Scotsmen, 
 taken prisoners at the battle of Worcester and sold 
 into slavery at fifteen hundred pounds of sugar per 
 head. Although at first barbarously treated, many 
 of them finally became themselves proprietors and 
 planters, and there have been no white slaves there 
 for at least two hundred years. The Indians of 
 neighboring isles were often decoyed into slavery, 
 however, and a curious narrative illustrating the con- 
 ditions prevailing at that time may be found in The 
 Spectator entitled Yinkle and Yarico. 
 
 About the middle of the eighteenth century the 
 number of white inhabitants was still less than twenty 
 thousand, while the negroes had increased to more 
 than sixty thousand. It was about this time, or in 
 1751, that the island was honored by a visit from one 
 who afterward caused the British a great deal of trou- 
 ble, but who was then unknown. It was at the age of 
 twenty, and as companion of his brother Lawrence, 
 who was then in the last stages of consumption, that 
 George Washington made his only foreign voyage. 
 Lawrence's health had failed, and his physician or- 
 
270 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 dered him to the West Indies; and, as he desired 
 George to accompany him, the latter obediently com- 
 plied. They were five weeks on the voyage, which to- 
 day would consume less than a week; but the young 
 surveyor and major of militia improved every moment 
 in making a practical application of his knowledge 
 of navigation, of which he had hitherto studied only 
 the theory. Once landed at Bridgetown, the capital 
 of that island of superabundant blacks and sugar 
 cane, George saw what was probably his first theatri- 
 cal performance — the tragedy of George Bromwell — 
 of which, in his conscientious way, he enters a critical 
 notice in his journal. This silent companion of his 
 travels bears testimony that he was in love with the 
 island and its hospitable planters; but still he Avrites: 
 " How wonderful that such people should be in debt 
 and not able to indulge themselves in all the luxuries 
 as well as the necessaries of life! Yet so it happens. 
 Estates are often alienated for debt. How persons 
 coming to estates of two, three, or four hundred acres 
 can want, is to me most wonderful." 
 
 The brothers hired a pleasant cottage about a mile 
 from town and commanding a view of the bay, where, 
 as aristocratic landed proprietors themselves, they 
 were visited by the first people of the island. At the 
 house of one Judge Maynards they met the members 
 of the " Beefsteak and Tripe Club " ; but the meats 
 on the table did not provoke young Washington's en- 
 comiums so much as their tropical concomitants, the 
 delicious fruits, of which he writes admiringly. Un- 
 fortunately for his scheme of enjoyment, George was 
 brought low by an attack of smallpox, after he had 
 
BARBADOES, TOBAGO, AND TRINIDAD 271 
 
 been two weeks on the island, and though he soon re- 
 covered from it his face bore marks of the disease 
 the rest of his life. So we may say that this was the 
 only gift the " Father of his Country " received from 
 Barbadoes; and Lawrence's health not improving, 
 George was sent back to bring out his wife, departing 
 on the 2 2d of December for Virginia, and arriving at 
 Mount Vernon the 1st of February, 1752. Lawrence 
 
 *&*flfc 
 
 }*•*& 
 
 •■.*■ * 
 
 Carib boys at play, Saint Vincent. 
 
 soon followed, and died in June of that year, leaving 
 to his devoted brother that famous estate with which 
 his name is associated. This was the first, last, and 
 only time George Washington was outside the bor- 
 ders of the American colonies, though within their 
 bounds he made many perilous journeys. 
 
 Aside from some outbreaks among the slaves, 
 Barbadoes has rejoiced in uninterrupted peace ever 
 
272 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 since its foundation as a colony, and having continued 
 in English possession for nearly three hundred years, 
 it is distinctly British still, and most devoted to the 
 motherland. It is as completely English as Mar- 
 tinique and Guadeloupe are French, as shown in the 
 public structures of its capital and the town dwellings 
 of the wealthy planters. But it is in the country 
 districts that Old England is brought to mind, for, 
 were it not for the tropical character of the climate 
 and scenery, one might easily fancy himself in the 
 rural parts of Great Britain, with the churches and 
 chapels of ease draped in masses of ivy, and the well- 
 kept churchyards adjacent. Xear the center of this 
 beautiful and highly cultivated island stands Cod- 
 rington College, the oldest educational establishment 
 in the islands, founded in 1716. It is entirely sur- 
 rounded by plantations of sugar cane, and within its 
 ivy-covered walls its favored students find seclusion 
 from a distracting world if not the gratification of 
 every taste. Outside are avenues of palms, where 
 the majestic oreodoxa uplifts its golden coronal of 
 leaves, and one can hardly imagine a more delightful 
 retreat for the scholar or care-free man of books. 
 
 The emancipation of the Barbadian slaves, in 
 1838, was not attended by the disastrous consequences 
 that ensued in other islands. Owing to their great 
 number and the scarcity of arable land upon which 
 they could obtain a living almost without labor, as in 
 the more mountainous islands, the black Barbadians 
 had the choice either to work or to starve. They 
 chose the former alternative, and to-day there is no 
 more intelligent and industrious population than that 
 
BAKBADOES, TOBAGO, AND TRINIDAD 273 
 
 of Barbadoes, where there are at least eleven hun- 
 dred and fifteen people to the square mile; and of the 
 one hundred and six thousand four hundred acres, at 
 least one hundred thousand acres are in 'a high state 
 of cultivation. 
 
 The sponsors of African slavery in America were 
 the Spaniards, who introduced it into Santo Do- 
 mingo during the governorship of the inhuman 
 Ovando, and with the approval of the humane Las 
 Casas. But while the Spaniards were responsible 
 for its introduction, the English were equally culpa- 
 ble, for they soon shared in its profits by transporting 
 the unhappy victims from Africa to the TTest Indies. 
 The first Englishman to sully his country's honor by 
 engaging in this nefarious business was Sir John 
 Hawkins about 1562, and more than two hundred 
 years later the trade in human flesh was so lucrative 
 that when the citizens of Kingston, Jamaica, peti- 
 tioned the home Government to discourage it, the 
 merchants of Bristol and Liverpool, through the Earl 
 of Dartmouth, declared: "We can not allow the 
 colonies to check or discourage in any degree a traffic 
 so beneficial to the nation "! This was in 1775; but 
 in the first part of the next century the evils of 
 the traffic became so apparent that agitation was 
 directed toward its extinction, and with the result 
 that not only was it eventually suppressed, but the 
 slaves of all English colonies were emancipated. 
 England was generous to her planter colonists, grant- 
 ing them large sums as reimbursement for their 
 losses: but from emancipation dates the decay of 
 West Indian prosperity. The negroes in all the 
 
274 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 islands except Barbadoes, finding it possible to supply 
 their wants without much labor, refused to work on 
 the sugar plantations, and the consequence has been 
 the virtual ruin of the islands. In many islands, as 
 in Jamaica and Trinidad, large importations of East 
 Indian coolies were made, under indentures, who 
 temporarily supplied the demand for labor, and be- 
 came attractive features in the population with their 
 Oriental garb and manners. 
 
 France followed England in liberating her slaves, 
 in 1848, and most reluctantly Spain, about twenty 
 years later; so that now, and particularly since the 
 United States released the Cubans and Puerto Ricans 
 from their political servitude, all the people in the 
 vast archipelago are free. We have seen, in our re- 
 view of Haiti's history, that the black man has not 
 shown an aptitude for civilization and progress at all 
 encouraging to those who have his welfare at heart. 
 He has retrogressed at every point, since the restrain- 
 ing hand of a stronger race has been removed, and 
 in many cases has reverted to genuine African bar- 
 barism. Although there are some exceptions, nota- 
 bly that of the black chief justice of Barbadoes, 
 yet on the whole the outlook for the negro's future 
 is not hopeful. In the mountainous islands, particu- 
 larly, where the blacks can reside in a seclusion un- 
 broken by frequent contact with the whites, they 
 practice the black arts of African sorcery under the 
 name of obeah, and indulge, as in Haiti, in barbaric 
 seances and festivals, at which sometimes children 
 are killed and eaten. In truth, the cannibal Caribs 
 did no worse, for, like the present semisavages of 
 
BARBADOES, TOBAGO, AND TRINIDAD 275 
 
 the islands, they were but " ritual cannibals/' or per- 
 formed the hideous ceremony from misguided reli- 
 gious motives. 
 
 But this is a subject too vast for adequate treat- 
 ment here. We will conclude our short excursions 
 into these historic fields by mention of the only re- 
 maining islands of importance in the West Indies 
 that we have not visited — Tobago and Trinidad. One 
 hundred and twenty miles west of south from Bar- 
 badoes lies the little-known island of Tobago, which 
 though at present forlorn and almost destitute of 
 white inhabitants, was at one time contended for with 
 avidity by such great powers as England, Holland, 
 and France, and passed from one to the other like a 
 shuttlecock of evil fortune. Twice, thrice it was 
 ravaged and rendered desolate, and not only de- 
 prived of its aboriginal inhabitants, the Caribs, but 
 of such as had settled here, coming over from Great 
 Britain and the Continent. 
 
 Tobago is about five miles longer than Barbadoes, 
 but has only half its width, containing one hundred 
 and fourteen square miles of hills, valleys, and moun- 
 tains; in the main covered with virgin forest, and 
 with a population of less than twenty thousand. Dif- 
 fering, like Trinidad, in geological formation from 
 other islands of the West Indies, it was probably at 
 some distant time sliced off from the adjacent conti- 
 nent of South America, for its flora arid fauna are 
 continental in character and not insular. Flora and 
 fauna, both, are tropical and wonderful, as I can tes- 
 tify, having lived a while here, playing Crusoe, 
 years ago. In sooth it was here that I collected the 
 
276 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 material for a book of adventure called Crusoe's Is- 
 land : a Bird-Hunter's Story, in which I trace the con- 
 nection between this island of Tobago and that where 
 the mythic hero Eobinson Crusoe lived his grand and 
 solitary life. Tobago, then, is the ideal island of 
 Defoe, and not Juan Fernandez on the farther coast 
 of South America : as is set forth in the book referred 
 to. Aside from its most fascinating natural and his- 
 torical features, Tobago should be of interest to all 
 hero lovers from having at one time been the resi- 
 dence of Paul Jones, that indomitable fighter and 
 privateer who won the first naval successes of our 
 Revolution. As a French colony during a brief 
 period, Tobago had a voice in the election of Bo- 
 naparte; but since the first decade of this century 
 it has been governed as a crown colony of Great 
 Britain. 
 
 At last we reach the southernmost island of the 
 West Indies, Trinidad, discovered by Columbus on 
 his third voyage, in 1498, and from whom it received 
 its name on account of its mountain range with three 
 prominent peaks, suggestive to him of the Trinity. 
 It contains seventeen hundred and fifty-four square 
 miles of fertile valleys, high mountains, and elevated 
 hills, yet holds a population but twenty thousand 
 in excess of little Barbadoes. Its staple products are 
 the Fame as those of the other isles, to which may be 
 added the native woods and bitumen, of which latter 
 there is an inexhaustible supply in the wonderful 
 Pitch Lake, one hundred and ten acres in extent. 
 From this lake is obtained the greater portion of the 
 bitumen or asphalt used in the paving of our streets, 
 
BARBADOES, TOBAGO, AND TRINIDAD 277 
 
 the contract for exploiting and exporting which is 
 held by an American company. Trinidad has been 
 in British possession since 1797, when Abercrombie 
 took it from the Spaniards jnst previous to his assault 
 upon the Alorro at San Juan de Puerto Rico. 
 
 The most famous personage with whom Trinidad 
 is identified, next to Columbus, is that brilliant Eng- 
 lishman of the Elizabethan period, Sir Walter Ra- 
 leigh. It was on this island, in truth, that he met 
 with the most singular of his adventures, and from 
 
 m 
 
 I 
 
 THIRD & FOURTH VOYAGES 
 
 OF COLUMBUS 
 
 TO THE WEST INDIES 
 
 it that he sailed, in 1618, to ignominious death at the 
 hands of the royal headsman. Sir Walter's atten- 
 tion to this island off the Orinoco's mouth was at- 
 tracted by the strange story then prevalent of a 
 kingdom situated up that river called Manoa, where 
 lived the native king, El Dorado, or the Gilded One. 
 Many fabulous tales were related of this mythic 
 kingdom and its gilded ruler, of which the following 
 is the oldest known: He lived in the midst of moun- 
 tains of diamonds and surrounded by golden hills, 
 
278 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 where the precious metal was so abundant that the 
 sovereign fairly reveled in riches. Every year he 
 and his people held a solemn sacrifice, at which 
 this wealthy king smeared his body with turpentine 
 and then rolled in gold dust. Thus gilded and re- 
 splendent, he entered his canoe and was taken by his 
 nobles to a temple in the center of a lake, where 
 he deposited offerings of gold, emeralds, and other 
 precious things, after which he plunged into the 
 water to bathe and remove his coating of gold. 
 
 The Spaniards believed this story, and more than 
 one expedition was sent in search of El Dorado and 
 the mines of gold — one in particular as early as 1560, 
 starting from Peru, descending the Amazon and 
 Orinoco, and encountering terrible privations on the 
 way. In the year 1595 Raleigh set sail from Eng- 
 land with five ships, arriving at Trinidad early in the 
 summer and exploring the Orinoco quite a distance 
 from its mouths, but without finding more than a 
 tradition of the gilded king, and no gold worth the 
 trouble. The strangest part of the story is that he 
 carried back to Elizabeth most glowing reports of 
 his wonderful discoveries, and assured the credulous 
 queen that at sight of her glorious image the king 
 himself had swooned in admiration. The best result 
 of that expedition was the book he wrote about it 
 called The Discovery of the Large, Rich, and Beau- 
 tiful Empire of Guiana, with a relation of the Great 
 and Golden City of Manoa, which the Spaniards call 
 El Dorado, performed in the year 1595, by Sir Wal- 
 ter Raleigh, Knight. There is much in this book 
 besides its title, long though it may be, and many 
 
BARBADOES, TOBAGO, AND TRINIDAD 279 
 
 shrewd and quaint observations upon things discov- 
 ered, and some things unseen, by the gallant knight. 
 Like Columbus, he saw the fat " oisters " growing on 
 trees — the mangroves, which at low tide were sub- 
 merged; he described the " uglie serpents called 
 largatos," or alligators, and tasted the flesh of the 
 " cachicama," or armadillo. 
 
 The island of Trinidad," he wrote, " hath the 
 form of a sheep hook and is but narrow; the north 
 part is very mountainous; the soil is excellent and 
 will bear sugar, ginger, or other commodity that 
 the Indies yield. It hath store of deer, wild porks, 
 fruits, fish, and fowl. It hath also for bread sufficient 
 maize, cassavi, and of those other roots and fruits 
 which are common everywhere in the West Indies. 
 It hath divers beasts which the [East] Indies have 
 not; the Spaniards confessed that they found grains 
 of gold in some of the rivers. . . . This island is 
 called by the people thereof ' Cairi/ and in it are 
 divers nations; those of Punta Carao are of the Ara- 
 wacas." 
 
 Of the Pitch Lake he wrote: " New Year's Eve 
 we came to anchor at Tierra de Bri, short of the 
 Spanish port some ten leagues. This is a piece of 
 land some two leagues long and a league broad, all 
 stone pitch or bitumen, which riseth out of the 
 ground in little springs or fountains, and so swim- 
 ming a little way it hardeneth in the air and cov- 
 ereth all the plain. There are also many springs 
 of water, and in and among them many fish. . . . 
 There is that abundance of stone pitch that all the 
 ships of the world may therewith be laden from 
 
280 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 thence, and we made trial of it in trimming our ships 
 to be most excellent good, and melteth not with sun, 
 as the pitch of Norway, and therefore for ships trad- 
 ing with the south parts very profitable." 
 
 Alas, poor Sir Walter! If he had but confined 
 himself to observations on the natural features of 
 the island and had not meddled with politics, he 
 might have saved his head. But he could not refrain 
 from having a trial of strength with the Spaniards, 
 to whom the island belonged, and as England and 
 Spain were at peace this put him in bad odor at home. 
 The charges of his enemies that he wished to embroil 
 his country in a war with Spain bore hard upon him 
 when, after his benevolent protectress died, King 
 James gained the throne. 
 
 After those long years of imprisonment in the 
 Tower he was released expressly to make another 
 voyage in search of El Dorado, and to prove true 
 those fabulous stories he had invented to please 
 Queen Elizabeth; at all events, he risked his life in 
 the venture. There was doubtless something sinister 
 in the perfidious James's permission to cruise in Span- 
 ish waters, with the proviso that Raleigh was not to 
 provoke an encounter with the Spaniards, for the 
 king knew this to be well-nigh impossible. However, 
 he reached Trinidad a second time in 1617, but was 
 taken sick and could not go up the Orinoco, so he gave 
 the command to another. This captain, Keymis, 
 fought the Spaniards, contrary to Sir Walter's 
 orders, lost several men, among them young Sir Wal- 
 ter Raleigh, and burned a town; but found no gold 
 with which to return and avert the king's displeasure. 
 
282 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 Raleigh had good occasion to reproach this recalci- 
 trant officer, knowing well that his own life Avas now 
 forfeited, and his reproaches were so keen that poor 
 Keymis ran himself through with his sword. 
 
 Thus Trinidad and El Dorado rang the death 
 knell of the great Sir Walter, for immediately upon 
 his return in the Destiny (name of evil omen to 
 him) he was arrested, dragged to the Tower, and 
 six months later executed. Although a frivolous 
 courtier, Raleigh was a farseeing statesman, and 
 doubtless really intended that his country should 
 acquire this beautiful island, two hundred years be- 
 fore it actually became a British possession. But in 
 his aspirations he was thwarted by that " wise idiot/ 7 
 King James, who subordinated his kingdom's good to 
 private and unholy aims. 
 
 Raleigh's treatment of the Indians was humane, 
 even if his hatred of the Spaniards was intense, and, 
 wrote a historian of the last century, " the Caribs of 
 Guiana still fondly cherish the tradition of his alli- 
 ance, and to this day preserve the English colors 
 Avhich he left with them at parting." 
 
 Standing with him on that lone island off the 
 Orinoco's mouth, at the threshold of the great south- 
 ern continent, Ave can not but recall that it Avas Ra- 
 leigh AAdio sent out that expedition which resulted in 
 planting the first settlers of English blood in North 
 America. The hundred men under Ralph Lane and 
 Sir Richard Grenville, Avho composed the Roanoke 
 colony rescued the next year by Sir Francis Drake 
 and taken back to England, sailed through the West 
 Indies in 1585. And that ill-fated band under Mar- 
 
BARBADOES, TOBAGO, AND TRINIDAD 283 
 
 iner White, following in their tracks in 1587, cruised 
 joyously from island to island in the Caribbees ere it 
 was swallowed up in the wilds of Roanoke. With this 
 party were the parents of Virginia Dare, the first 
 child of English parentage born in America, and who 
 was baptized on the 20th of August, 1587. 
 
 Yes, before us rise the wraiths of many gallant 
 spirits at one time most intimately connected with the 
 romance and history of these islands. Through the 
 " Serpent's Mouth," which separates Trinidad from 
 Venezuela, Columbus sailed with trepidation into 
 the Gulf of Paria, thence out by way of the " Mouth 
 of the Dragon " to his discovery of the islands of 
 pearls, Cubagua and Margarita. Did not these is- 
 lands, together with Dutch Curacao and Buen Ayre, 
 pertain more particularly to South America than to 
 the West Indies, we might have many a tale to tell of 
 them in connection with the history of the famous 
 Spanish Main. Along this coast sailed gallant Ojeda, 
 and with him one Amerigo Vespucci, who became 
 world-famous as the purloiner of laurels belonging 
 to Columbus. Over in Tobago grew the plant 
 which Raleigh has the credit of having introduced 
 into England — whether wisely or not — tobacco, 
 which obtained its name, it is said, from that island. 
 On the main, westerly from Trinidad, is an ancient 
 Indian settlement, Ameraca-pan, from which (and 
 not from Amerigo Vespucci), some have claimed, was 
 really derived the name bestowed upon the Western 
 continents. 
 
 Not alone are great names, held dear by several 
 different nations, intimately associated with West 
 20 
 
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 NNW .... 
 
 i 
 
 .... p^ when 8p 
 
 ; 
 
 \ . . '• 
 
 > has had . \ ■ - ^ . 
 
 V \ 
 
 . V , X NV . ' . ) '.'.'. W • 
 
 , . U 
 
 ... | | . 
 
 'vV\;l', '.V ' 
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 Q 
 
 ) 
 . . u . . 
 
I A 
 
I X D E X 
 
 Aborigines of the West Indies, 6, 
 
 23, 37, 39. 62-74. 
 Agouti. 57. 73. 
 Aguadilla. harbor of. 77. 
 Agueynaba, cacique. 224. 227. 
 American Fla^r. the, first salute of. 
 
 244. 
 Anacaona, caciquess. 98-103. 
 Anana, or pineapple, 9. 57. 
 Areytos, native songs, 37. 
 
 Bahamas, the, 1, 4, 12. 
 
 Bahia Honda, 16. 
 
 Balienatos, small islands, 17. 
 
 Baracoa. harbor of, 18, 19 ; island of. 
 20. 21 ; town of, 185. 
 
 Barbadoes. island of, 268-274 : slaves 
 of, emancipated, 273. 
 
 Bartholomew Columbus. 93: gov- 
 ernor of Hispaniola, 94, 96, 98; 
 Anacaona's gifts to, 103 ; death 
 of. 122. 
 
 Batabano. bay of, 29. 
 
 Bateria de la Punta Castle. 195. 
 
 Battlefields, historic. 251-264. 
 
 Bimini, island of. 230. 
 
 Blackbeard. pirate, 235-239. 
 
 Blanco, governor of Havana. 133. 
 
 Bloodhounds. Cuban. 219. 
 
 Bobadilla, governor of Santo Do- ; 
 mingo, 104, 105, 120, 121. 
 
 Bohechio, cacique, 91, 96-99. 
 
 Bohios, or huts. 25. 
 
 Babeque, or Land of Gold, 34, 
 
 35. 
 Bonaparte, Napoleon, 163-168, 170. 
 Bouille, Marquis, 258. 
 Bow of Ulysses, the, 60. 
 Brimstone Hill, fort of, 248. 
 Buccaneers, 72, 140-143 ; origin of, 
 
 146 ; classes of, 147, 148. 
 
 Cabanas, harbor of, 16. 
 
 Cabo de la Cruz. 28, 32. 
 
 Cacique, Indian, 21, 23, 40, 57. 
 
 Cannibal Caribs of Dominica, 63- 
 72; area occupied by. 65 ; of Saint 
 Vincent, 73 : relics of. 74. 75. 
 
 Canoe, 19, 116; discovered by Co- 
 lumbus, 55, 56. 
 
 Caonabo, cacique, 89. 91. 93. 98, 99. 
 
 Caparra, first city of Puerto Rico, 
 225. 
 
 Casa Blanca, Puerto Bico. 231. 
 
 Cascabel, relic, 88. 
 
 Cassava, native bread, 8, 37, 57. 
 
 Catalina, 89. 
 
 Cat Island. 2. 3. 
 
 Cervera, Admiral, fleet of. 191-194. 
 
 Charlotte Araalie. town of. 234. 235. 
 
 Christophe, Henry, king of Haiti, 
 165, 169, 176-182. 
 287 
 
288 
 
 THE STORIED WEST IN DIMS 
 
 Christopher's Cove, 205'; Indians of, 
 205,206. 
 
 Cibao, or gold region, 91. 
 
 Ciceroo, parrot, 71. 
 
 Cienfuegos, port of, 13. 
 
 Codrington College, 272. 
 
 Columbus, Christopher, first voyage 
 of, 8, L0; at Guanahani, 3; land- 
 ing place, Watling'e Island, 5; on 
 north coast of Cuba, 18, 17 ; in 
 search of Cipangb, 17; at Bara- 
 coa, L8; at Cape Maysi, 26; on 
 south coast of Cuba, 27 : at Bay 
 of Guantanamo, 27; on north 
 coast of Jamaica, 28, 81: at Bay 
 of Batabano, 29; on south shore 
 of Jamaica, 31 ; sails around Haiti, 
 31 ; at Isabella, 31 ; made four 
 voyages to America, 32: names 
 the islands, 30; journal of, 40, 41, 
 42 ; Santa Maria, flagship of, 35 ; 
 wreck of, 43; guest of Guacana- 
 gari, 41, 45, 46 ; builds fort at La 
 Navidad, 48; finds gold, 51; en- 
 ters Bay of Samana, 58 ; sails for 
 Spain, 54; departs on second voy- 
 age, 59; discovers Puerto Rico, 
 77 ; founded Isabella, 80; in San- 
 to Domingo, 83-86; builds forts, 
 85; subjugates the Indians, 88; 
 in prison, 105 ; sent back to Spain, 
 106; where are the remains of? 
 127; placed in cathedral, Santo 
 Domingo, 128 ; alleged transfer to 
 Havana, 128; tomb of, 128; re- 
 cent discovery of remains, 130 ; 
 casket containing bones of, 131 ; 
 author views remains of, 132 ; 
 driven by storm to Jamaica, 205; 
 predicts an eclipse of the moon, 
 205 ; death of, 208 ; discovers 
 Trinidad, 276 ; discovers Pearl 
 Islands, 283. 
 
 Columbus Point, 2. 
 
 Concepci6n de la Vega, fort of, 85, 
 
 86; bell tower of, 80, 87; attack 
 
 of, 94. 
 ( Jonchs of the Bahamas, 7. 
 ( Jortes, lleiiian, 185, 187. 
 Cotton discovered by Columbus, 8, 
 
 24. 
 Cotubanama, cacique, 91, 1 16. 
 Crabs, 137. 
 
 Cristobal Colon, battleship, 28. 
 Crocodile, 56. 
 
 Cromwell, Oliver, 210, 211. 
 Croton eleutheria, a herb, 9. 
 Cuba, island of, 18, 199; harbors of, 
 
 14, 18; natives of, 0:5 ; invasion 
 
 of, by United States troops, 202; 
 
 an American possession, 202. 
 Curari, poison, 69. 
 
 Dare, Virginia, birth of, 283. 
 De Grasse, Captain, 200-203. 
 Dessalines, Jean Jacques, emperor 
 
 of Haiti, 105, 170-170. 
 Diamond Rock, 265. 
 Diego Columbus, 119, 121, 208, 209. 
 Diego Mendez, 95, 200; discovers 
 
 gold, 90. 
 Diego Velasquez, founded first city 
 
 in Cuba, 20, 184, 189. 
 Dominica, island of, 61. 
 Doria, Andrew, a brigantine, 244. 
 Drake, Sir Francis, 134, 189, 233, 
 
 252. 
 
 Edwards, Bryan, of Jamaica, 113. 
 El Dorado, king, 277, 278. 
 Eleuthera, island of, 9. 
 Elizabeth, queen of England, 278. 
 Evangelista, island of, 31. 
 
 Farine made from manioc, 70. 
 Faro Concha, or shell lighthouse, 25. 
 
INDEX 
 
 289 
 
 Fer-de- lanee, serpent, 267- 
 Ferdinand, king of Spain, 88, 119. 
 Ferdinand de Soto, 196. 
 Fort« built and named, 48, 85, 86. 
 Fountain of Youth, 228. ' 
 French and English, struggles be- 
 tween the. 265. 
 Fronde, James Anthony, 248. 
 
 Garden* of the Queen, the, 28; In- 
 dians of, 29. 
 
 Gold found. 108. 
 
 Goleta. coasting vessel. 80, 81. 
 
 Great Khan. 6, 62; Columbus sent 
 embassy to. 21-23 
 
 Grenada, island of, 207. 
 
 Guacanagari. cacique, 21, 23, 40-45, 
 57, 78, 88, 89. 
 
 Guadeloupe, island of, 61, 63, 77, 
 280, 253 ; waterfall of, 63. 
 
 Guanahani, first land discovered by 
 Columbus, 3 ; Indians of, 6. 
 
 Guantanamo, bay of, 27. 
 
 Guarionex, cacique. 90, 94, 95. 
 
 Guira, instrument of music. 5-. 
 
 Haiti, island of. 33. 35 : harbors of, 
 39: natives of 63: revolution in, 
 158, 163 ; governor of, 173, 174. 
 
 Ilaitien, Cape. 57. 157. 
 
 Hammocks. I I 
 
 Havana, city of, 188, 195-198. 
 
 Helps. Sir Arthur, historian, 112. 
 
 Henrique, cacique. 135. 136. 
 
 Hen-era, historian. 10, 17. 184. 
 
 Higuey. province of, 91. 117. 
 
 Humboldt, 16. 29. 30. 
 
 Hurricanes, 196. 
 
 Hyppolite, president of Haiti, 183. 
 
 Indian corn (maize . 37, 57 
 Indians, first seen by Columbus, 6. 
 23: huts of, 23; of Cuba, 23; relies 
 
 and implements of, 26, 37, 55 ; of 
 Haiti, 7, 37-39 ; of Santo Domin- 
 go, 90-96; gold found by, 108; 
 tortured by Spaniards, 114; of 
 Hispaniola, 118; antiquities of, 
 214. 
 
 Isabella, island of, 31 ; city of, 
 founded, 80; ruins of, 82, 96. 
 
 Isle of Pines, 31, 
 
 Jarama, silk-cotton tree, 116. 
 Jibara, hills of, 16, 18. 
 Jones, Paul, privateer, 276. 
 Josephine, empress, 255-257; statue 
 
 of, 253-255 ; birthplace of 255. 
 Journal of Columbus, 10, 11, 18, 5-3, 
 
 56. 
 Juana (Cuba;, 17. 
 
 La Ferriere, fortress of, 178-180. 
 
 Lagoons, 17, 80. 
 
 La Navidad, 48 ; massacre at, 89. 
 
 Landfall of Columbus, 3-5. 
 
 La Pagerie, estate of, 255. 
 
 La Eabida, monastery of, 49. 
 
 Las Casas, bishop, 117, 122, 187 ; 
 
 biography of, 122-125. 
 Leclere, General, 164, 165, 169. 170. 
 Antilles, the, 60. 240. 2&8; 
 
 Columbus names the islands, 77. 
 Limonade, Comte de, 177. 
 Lolonnois, buccaneer, 148, 149. 
 Lucayans, Indians. 7, 46. 
 
 Macaca. province of, 32. 
 
 Maguana. town of. 98. 
 
 Maine, United States battle ship, 
 
 sinking of the, 201. 
 Manioc. 70. 72. 
 
 Marco Polo. Venetian traveler, 21. 
 Maria Teresa, Cervera's fiagship, 
 
 1. 2. 
 Marie Galante, island of, 61. 
 
290 
 
 THE STORIED WEST INDIES 
 
 Maroons, of Jamaica, 215-222. 
 Martinique, island of, 252, 253. 
 Martyr, Peter, historian, 97, 154, 208, 
 
 223. 
 Matanzas, port of, 16. 
 Matapie, a basket, 72. 
 Mayobanex, cacique, 95. 
 Monte Cristi, 77, 78, 94. 
 Montezuma, king of Mexico, 46. 
 Montserrat, island of, 77. 
 Morgan, Henry, buccaneer, 211, 
 
 212. 
 Morro Castle, 186, 195, 231. 
 Mount Misery, 248. 
 
 Narvaez, Pamphilo de, 196. 
 
 Neiba, bay of, 98. 
 
 Nevis, island of, 250. 
 
 Nina, one of Columbus's fleet, 44, 51. 
 
 Nispero de Colon, 84. 
 
 Nuevitas. port and harbor of, 17. 
 
 Nugget of gold, 108. 
 
 Obeah, sorcerer, 274. 
 
 Ocampo, circumnavigated Cuba, 31, 
 
 184; at Hispaniola, 123. 
 Ojeda, Alonso de, with Columbus, 
 
 91-93, 122. 
 Orange, fort of, 244. 
 Ovando, Nicolas de, 106, 107, 109; 
 
 barbarities of, 111, 112, 116. 
 Ozama Eiver, 103 ; palace on, 119. 
 
 Pan de Cabanas, 16. 
 
 Pan de Mariel, 16. 
 
 Parkman, author of Pioneers of 
 
 France in the New World, 112. 
 Parrots, 9, 10. 
 Pedro de Cordova, a Franciscan 
 
 monk, 121. 
 Phipps, Captain William, 152, 155. 
 Pinta, one of Columbus's fleet, 10, 
 
 52, 53. 
 
 Pinzon, captain of the Pinta, 35, 52, 
 53. 
 
 Pitch Lake, Trinidad, 276. 279. 
 
 Pitons, mountains, 266. 
 
 Ponce de Leon, 12, 196, 223-230; 
 death of, 230. 
 
 Porto Bueno, harbor of Jamaica, 
 203. 
 
 Port Royal, harbor and city of, 211- 
 214. 
 
 Puerto Plata, harbor of, 53. 
 
 Puerto Rico, island of, 77, 223 ; In- 
 dian relics of, 227 ; capital of, 231, 
 232. 
 
 Quisqueya, native name of Santo 
 Domingo, 35. 
 
 Raleigh, Sir Walter, 210, 277-283. 
 Relics of West Indies destroyed, 
 
 113. 
 Remora, the, fish, 29. 
 Rio del Oro, or River of Gold, 51, 52. 
 Robertson, Dr., historian, 115. 
 Robespierre, 158. 
 
 Rochambeau, General, 167, 171, 172. 
 Roderick de Triana, 10. 
 Rodney, Admiral Lord, 245, 260- 
 
 264. 
 Roldan, 94, 104, 108. 
 Roucou, coloring, 65. 
 
 Saba, island of, 241. 
 Saint Christophers, island of, 77. 
 Saint Eustatius, island of, 241, 246. 
 Saint Kitt's, island of, 145, 246. 
 Saint Lucia, island of, 258, 265. 
 Saint Thomas, island of, 234. 
 Saint Vincent, island of, 73, 75; 
 
 volcano of, 267 ; Caribs of, 267. 
 Samana, bay of, 53, 90, 165. 
 San Juan, city of, 231 ; battle of, 
 
 193. 
 
INDEX 
 
 291 
 
 San Nicolas, city of, 37, 38. 
 
 San Salvador, island of, first dis- 
 covered by Columbus, 2, 3, 7, 8. 
 
 Sans Souci, palace of, 178-180. 
 
 Santa Cruz, island of, 77, 146. 
 
 Santa Maria, 12 ; flagship of Colum- 
 bus, 35 ; anchor of, found, 49 ; 
 wreck of, 43. 
 
 Santiago de Cuba, harbor of, 27, 
 188; city of, 186-190; fall of, 194. 
 
 Santiago de los Caballeros, city of, 
 157. 
 
 Santo Cerro, or Holy Hill, 83, 84. 
 
 Santo Domingo, island of, 35 ; city 
 of, 93, 165; founded, 96; origin 
 of, 103 ; church and monastery of, 
 122; ruins of first university in, 
 122 ; the oldest European settle- 
 ment in the New World, 126 ; old 
 cathedral of, 127 ; extinction of 
 Indians of, 136 ; president of, 138. 
 
 Sargasso Sea, 55. 
 
 Seats, aboriginal, 22, 26. 
 
 Sevilla Nueva, city of, 208. 
 
 Slavery, introduction of, 273. 
 
 Spanish Town, 209. 
 
 Ten Years' War, the, 201. 
 Thunderbolts, 7. 
 
 Tobacco, 283. 
 
 Tobago, island of, 275, 276. 
 
 Tortuga, or Turtle Island, 33, 35; 
 buccaneers of, 33, 142 ; description 
 of, 142, 143 ; resort of pirates, 149. 
 
 Toussaint L'Ouverture, 161-168. 
 
 Treasure Cove, 150. 
 
 Trinidad, port of, 29 ; island of, 276, 
 279. 
 
 Trois llet, 255. 
 
 Turquino, a mountain, 28. 
 
 Washington, George, 269-271. 
 Watling's Island, landing place of 
 
 Columbus, 3, 5 ; author's visit to, 
 
 5,6. 
 West Indies, the, history in epitome 
 
 of, 284. 
 Words added to our language, 57, 
 
 63. 
 Wrecks, Spanish, in Caribbean Sea, 
 
 151. 
 
 Xaragua, province of, 79, 97, 98, 104 ; 
 massacre of natives of, 109, 119; 
 Spanish atrocities in, 117. 
 
 Yunque (the Anvil) mountain, 20, 
 21. 
 
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