Kitabı oku: «Spanish and Portuguese South America during the Colonial Period; Vol. 1», sayfa 20

The arrival of Drake at Plymouth was hailed, as on a former occasion, with the most warm welcome, the mayor and corporation receiving him, and the bells of St. Andrew’s Church ringing a continuous peal during the day, whilst the gentlemen of the neighbourhood vied with the burghers to do him honour. But all was not quite clear on Drake’s horizon. That he had committed acts against Spain which could only be justified by his country being at war with that power was abundantly clear. Drake was therefore in one of two positions. Either he was an officer bearing letters of marque, or other authority, from Queen Elizabeth, which entitled him to commit the acts which he had committed, in which case Elizabeth was at war with Spain; or he had committed these unquestioned acts of piracy on his own account, in which case he was liable to punishment, and the Spaniards whom he had plundered were entitled to demand restitution of the losses they had sustained through his acts.

Queen Elizabeth and her Ministers took five months to decide this point, in which they were so deeply interested and on which so much depended. During this time Drake remained in semi-disgrace, since no ray of court favour fell upon him. It may readily be imagined with what doubts the Queen was at this time perplexed. That she heartily approved of the deeds of Drake, and that she gloried in him as a gallant navigator, no one would for a moment question; but, on the other hand, there was the supposed colossal power of Spain, backed by the Church,—so soon to be shivered against the force of England, but a contest with which was not lightly to be entered upon.

Fortunately for the human race, Queen Elizabeth and her counsellors determined to take upon themselves the responsibility of avowing the acts of Drake, who, whilst the issues of the question concerning him were being discussed, received the complimentary appellation of “the master thiefe of the unknowne world,” which it must be admitted he fully deserved. It may be interesting to state that the immediate pecuniary results of this voyage to Drake himself, and to his partners and fellow-adventurers, after all charges had been paid, was four thousand seven hundred per cent. He was likewise knighted and promoted to the rank of admiral, whilst in the “Golden Hind” he was visited by the Queen.

Drake’s next voyage to the westward, undertaken in 1585, and to which a tinge of romance is given from the connection with it of Sir Philip Sidney, has so little bearing on South America that it need not occupy our time. Nor is this the place to state the part which the gallant seaman played in the defeat of the Spanish Armada. But one more line must be written to conclude the story of Hawkins and of Drake with reference to the colonies of Spain.

1593.

The power of England had been so clearly pointed out to be upon the waves, that her rulers, anxious to pursue their advantage, determined to employ her two most valiant and renowned sea-captains for working the yet further detriment of Spain. Accordingly, in the year 1593, the Queen gave notice that she intended to place a fleet under Sir Francis Drake, to whom in the following year was associated his old patron, Hawkins.

Sir John Hawkins was now an admiral, between seventy-five and eighty years of age; and as he was, moreover, wealthy, he showed more zeal than discretion in venturing once more upon the climate of the West Indies. Even ten years before this period the veteran had given proof that he was no longer the man he had been. Together with Frobisher, he had held command of ten of the Queen’s ships to scour the coasts of Spain; but at the end of seven months they had returned without having taken a single vessel and without having effected anything. The Queen was naturally indignant at such waste of force and of time, and Hawkins deemed it necessary to excuse himself. The old slave-dealer had been always very pious, and on this occasion he deemed it fitting to remind her Majesty that Paul planteth and Apollos watereth, but that God giveth the increase. This quotation from Scripture was, under the circumstances, a little out of place. Elizabeth’s comment upon it was, “God’s death! This fool went out a soldier and is come home a divine.”

The squadron which the Queen had ordered to proceed to South America under the joint command of the two admirals, sailed from Plymouth on the 28th of August 1595. But it was doomed to disaster throughout its course. One vessel, the “Francis,” was taken by the Spaniards; and whilst preparing to pass through the Virgin Islands, Hawkins became extremely sick, and soon breathed his last. At Puerto Rico a great shot struck the mizen-mast of Drake’s ship, whilst another shot knocked the stool on which he was seated from under him. Every preparation had been made for the defence of the harbour and town; but, in spite of a heavy fire, the English persisted in their desperate attempts, until they had lost some forty or fifty killed and as many wounded. They were, however, eventually compelled to retire, after having inflicted very severe losses on the enemy.

Drake now proceeded to the Caribbean shore and took the town of La Hacha, the inhabitants of which ransomed themselves for thirty thousand ducats. Rancheria and Rio de La Hacha were burnt down to the ground, as was likewise Santa Martha, after which operations Drake proceeded to Nombre de Dios, which was soon taken and destroyed, together with all the frigates and barques in the harbour.

It was now decided that an attempt should be made on Panamá, and for this purpose seven hundred and fifty soldiers were selected to march over the isthmus. “The march was so sore,” says Hakluyt, “as never Englishmen marched before;” and in the end it was deemed best, after the loss of between eighty and ninety men, to make their way back to the fleet.

1596.

On the 15th of January, Sir Francis Drake began to keep his cabin; and on the 28th of that month, at four o’clock in the morning, he departed this life. His body was conveyed to Puerto Bello, where it was solemnly committed to the deep.

. . . . . . . .

The third of the three great men who may be said to have created between them England’s position as Mistress of the Waves, and to have given the English navy the character which it bears, is Sir Walter Raleigh. Hawkins represents the old English unthinking, unreasoning, loyal, slave-hunting, religious skipper. Drake, in turn, represented a much higher phase of English sea-life. It is true that in his early days he commanded a vessel in one of Hawkins’ slave-hunting expeditions; but, to his great credit, he seems to have been so disgusted on this occasion, that he never afterwards soiled his hands by dealing in this unholy and abominable traffic. He was a corsair, but at the same time a conscientious man. At San Juan d’Ulloa and elsewhere he and his companions had suffered grievous wrongs and treachery at the hands of the Spanish authorities, wrongs for which he had in vain sought reparation at Madrid. He therefore conceived himself—and in this belief he was confirmed by a chaplain of his fleet—to be fully entitled to exact on his own account the reparation which was refused him by the Spanish Government; and it is to be noted that he sought simply reparation, and that he is, throughout his career, entirely exempt from charges of cruelty and of wanton depredation.

Hawkins and Drake were self-made men. They each rose to the rank of admiral from the manly class which furnishes our seamen before the mast. Raleigh, on the other hand, although not of aristocratic birth, and although not, strictly speaking, a seaman by profession, yet did almost everything towards the formation of the aristocratic element in our navy. It was the gifted favourite of Elizabeth who induced many a youth of the highest social circles to seek for distant ventures, and who thus created the tradition by which the noblest families of England, from that of the Queen downwards, devote one of their sons to the same toils, perils, and honours which, in degree, befall all ranks of our navy. Raleigh was ambitious for his country, for which, with prophetic vision, he foresaw its place as Mistress of the Deep. With the famous patent granted to him on March 25, 1584, to search out and take possession of new lands in the western hemisphere, we have only to deal in so far as it concerns Guyana.

1595.

Raleigh had already led the way to the planting of the English race in North America; he next directed his speculations towards the southern hemisphere, and projected an expedition to Guyana. As a preliminary measure he despatched a barque, under Captain Whiddon, to survey the coast of that portion of South America. The object he had in view was to explore and subdue Guyana, for the sake of the riches which it was supposed to possess. With a fleet of five ships, and with a gallant company of gentlemen, he sailed from Plymouth on the 6th of February 1595, and reached the Island of Trinidad, where he destroyed the new city of San Jose. There leaving his ships, he proceeded with barges, boats, and launches to explore the outlets of the Orinoco.

He toiled up the network of streams, through tropical thunder, lightning, and rain. He beheld the great river swelling like a sea between masses of luxuriant vegetation, profuse in tropical fruits and flowers, and looked down upon from a huge height by the snow-clad Andes and by the Condor; but he saw no gold, nor did he discover any mines. The setting-in of the rainy season put a period to his explorations; and, leaving behind him a man and a boy to serve as interpreters on his return, he set sail for England, taking with him a young Cacique.

. . . . . . . .

1616.

Long years were to elapse before Sir Walter Raleigh again hoisted his flag on the Atlantic. When he did so, a new order of things had arisen in England, since thirteen years before he had been committed to the Tower, from which he emerged on the 19th of March 1616. The destination of the squadron which he now organized was again Guyana. A hundred noblemen and gentlemen hastened to join the standard of the renowned commander, whilst there was no lack of mariners eager to serve under an admiral whose capacity has never been exceeded by any one in the long list of our naval heroes.

On the 11th of November 1617, Raleigh, now sixty-five years of age, reached Guyana, after a voyage which was in every way disastrous, and which had left himself in impaired health and the force at his command in diminished strength. His spirit, however, was still sanguine, as he drifted towards the Orinoco between the islands, in one of which is laid the scene of “Robinson Crusoe.” On reaching the river, it was found impossible for the larger vessels, including Raleigh’s own ship, the “Destiny,” to cross the bar, and as he was in too enfeebled a condition to lead the expedition inland in person, he had to relinquish the command to another, whilst he himself remained cruising between the Orinoco and Trinidad, being so weak that he had to be carried about in a chair.

Meanwhile, a considerable force ascended the river, under Captain Kemys and Sir Walter’s son. Guyana certainly belonged to England, if to any foreign nation, since on the occasion of Raleigh’s former expedition the Caciques, who had welcomed him as their deliverer from their Spanish neighbours, had declared their allegiance to England. But during his long absence Spanish settlements had been formed in the country.

Kemys proceeded up the Orinoco, his orders being to make for the mines without offering molestation; but if he were attacked he was to repel force by force. When encamped for the night half-way to the mines, he was set upon by the Spaniards, who hoped to take him by surprise, but who were repulsed, and who retreated, closely pursued by young Raleigh, who fell in the pursuit. The existence of mines was, however, proved, since four gold refineries were found in San Pome.

But Kemys had lost heart. The passes were in the hands of Spaniards, as were the forests and the banks of the streams, so that his followers were constantly shot down by unseen enemies. Returning, therefore, down the river, he rejoined his chief, with what was literally a sentence of death to the latter. Kemys could not bear his friend’s reproaches, and, in utter despair, he took his own life.

Four months later Raleigh was again in England, and on the 28th of October of the same year he expiated on Tower Hill his want of success; the illustrious victim being offered up by the contemptible James as a sacrifice to the implacable vengeance of Spain.

Note.—Chapter XVII. is founded on

“Life of Sir John Hawkins,” by Samuel Johnson, 2nd edition, 1787.

“Hawkins, (Sir John). Two Voyages made to the West Indies,” Hakluyt, III.

“Sir Francis Drake; The World Encompassed” (Hakluyt Society). 1854.

“Voyages of Drake;” Hakluyt, II. IV.; Purchas, I. IV.

“Life of Drake,” by Barrow.

“Raleigh (Sir Walter); Discovery of Guiana” (Hakluyt Society). 1848.

“Discovery of Guiana,” by Musham (Hakluyt, II.).

“Life of Sir Walter Raleigh,” by James Augustus St. John. 1868.

APPENDIX

I

It would naturally be expected that in a work of this kind there should be some reference made to the long-pending discussion respecting the letter addressed by Amerigo Vespucci to Lorenzo de Medici, by which it would appear that Vespucci had visited the coast of Pária in the year 1497—that is to say, in the year previous to that of the first visit of Columbus to the South-American continent; and that therefore, supposing this visit to be established, Amerigo Vespucci, and not Columbus, was the first European discoverer of the South-American continent. This question is one of the very first importance as regards history or geography; since on its solution depends not only the question after whom the great South-American continent should be called, but likewise the fair fame of Vespucci’s name.

Since no new points have, to my knowledge, arisen of sufficient importance to disturb what seems to me to be the necessarily final judgment arrived at by Washington Irving, and which had previously been concurred in by Robertson, and which is to be seen in the Appendix No. X. to Irving’s work, entitled “The Voyages of the Companions of Columbus,” I must confine myself to referring my readers to what seem to me the irrefutable arguments therein brought forward. I may at the same time refer them to the arguments, in a contrary direction, in the “Viaggi di Amerigo Vespuggi di Stanislao Canovai; Firenze,” 1832.

II

The Italian traveller Benzoni, who has been referred to in the preceding pages, has been quoted by Robertson, Irving, and Helps; but, considering the unique position which he holds as being the first foreign critic of the proceedings of the Spaniards in South America, I scarcely think that his volume has received the full attention which it deserves at the hands of modern writers on Spanish South America. I would therefore draw attention to some extracts from his work, begging the reader to bear in mind that they proceed by no means from a man of the mould of Las Casas, but from one who, by his own confession, took part in a slave-hunting expedition. The author in question was nevertheless, as he states, a devout Christian, and he dedicates his history of the New World to Pope Pius IV.

Benzoni started for America in the year 1541, and there spent fourteen years of toil and travail. Landing at the Gulf of Pária, he proceeded to Cuba and other islands, returning thence to Acla, whence he crossed to Panamá, from which place he visited the kingdom of Peru. In this wandering course he passed fourteen years. Benzoni is the author who is originally responsible for the well-known story of Columbus and the egg. He states that whilst at Amaracapana (Book I. p. 8) Captain Calice arrived with upwards of four thousand slaves and had captured many more. “When some of them could not walk, the Spaniards, to prevent their remaining behind to make war, killed them by burying their swords in their sides or their breasts. It was really a most distressing thing to see the way in which these wretched creatures, naked, tired, and lame, were treated; exhausted with hunger, sick, and despairing; the unfortunate mothers, with two and three children on their shoulders or clinging round their necks, overwhelmed with tears and grief, all tied with cords or with iron chains round their necks, or their arms, or their hands. Nor was there a girl but had been violated by the depredators.”

At page 159, Benzoni observes that Spaniards have eulogised themselves too much when they tell us that they are worthy of great praise for having converted to Christianity the tribes and nations that they subjugated; for there is a great difference between the name and the being one in reality.

“The slaves are all marked in the face and on the arms by a hot iron with the mark of C;²⁵ then the governors and captains do as they like with them; some are given to the soldiers, so that the Spaniards afterwards sell them or gamble them away among each other. When ships arrive from Spain, they barter these Indians for wine, flour, biscuit, and other requisite things. And even when some of the Indian women are pregnant by these same Spaniards, they sell them without any conscience. Then the merchants carry them elsewhere and sell them again. Others are sent to the island of Spagnuola (Hispaniola), filling with them some large vessels built like caravels. They carry them under the deck; and being nearly all people captured inland, they suffer severely the sea horrors; and not being allowed to move out of those sinks, what with their sickness and their other wants, they have to stand in the filth like animals; and the sea often being calm, water and other provisions fail them, so that the poor wretches, oppressed by the heat, the stench, the thirst, and the crowding, miserably expire there below. Now all that country around the Gulf of Pária and other places are no longer inhabited by the Spaniards.”

. . . . . . . .

“Finally, out of the two millions of original inhabitants (of Hispaniola), through the number of suicides and other deaths, occasioned by the oppressive labour and cruelties imposed by the Spaniards, there are not a hundred and fifty now to be found: and this has been their way of making Christians of them. What befell these poor islanders has happened also to all the others around: Cuba, Jamaica, Porto Rico, and other places. And although an almost infinite number of the inhabitants of the mainland have been brought to these islands as slaves, they have nearly all since died.”

. . . . . . . .

“And there being among the Spaniards some who are not only cruel, but very cruel. When a man occasionally wished to punish a slave, either for some crime that he had committed, or for not having extracted the usual quantity of silver or gold from the mine, when he came home at night, instead of giving him supper, he made him undress, if he happened to have a shirt on, and being thrown down on the ground, he had his hands and feet tied to a piece of wood laid across, so permitted under the rule called by the Spaniards the Law of Bajona, a law suggested, I think, by some great demon; then with a thong or rope he was beaten until his body streamed with blood; which done, they took a pound of pitch or a pipkin of boiling oil, and threw it gradually all over the unfortunate victim; then he was washed with some of the country pepper mixed with salt and water. He was thus left on a plank covered over with a cloth until his master thought he was again able to work. Others dug a hole in the ground and put the man in upright, leaving only his head out, and left him in it all night, the Spaniards saying that they have recourse to this cure because the earth absorbs the blood and preserves the flesh from forming any wound, so they get well sooner. And if any die (which sometimes happens) through great pain, there is no heavier punishment by law than that the master shall pay another (slave) to the king. Thus, on account of these very great cruelties in the beginning, some of them escaped from their masters, and wandered about the island in a state of desperation.”