Guacanagari feasted us with great dignity and earnestness, for he and his people held it a momentous1 thing our coming here, our being here. Utias we had and iguana2, fish, cassava bread, potato, many a delicious fruit, and that mild drink that they made. And we had calabashes, trenchers and fingers, stone knives with which certain officers of the feast decorously divided the meat, small gourds3 for cups, water for cleansing4, napkins of broad leaves. It was a great and comely5 feast. But before the feast, as in Cuba, the dance.
I should say that three hundred young men and maidens6 danced. They advanced, they retreated, they cowered7, they pressed forward. They made supplication8, arms to heaven or forehead to ground, they received, they were grateful, they circled fast in ease of mind, they hungered again and were filled again, they flowed together, they made a great square, chanting proudly!
Fray9 Ignatio beside me glowered11, so far as so good a man could glower10. But Juan Lepe said, "It is doubt and difficulty, approach, reconciliation12, holy triumph! They are acting13 out long pilgrimages and arrivals at sacred cities and hopes for greater cities. It is much the same as in Seville or Rome!" Whereupon he looked at me in astonishment14, and Jayme de Marchena said to Juan Lepe, "Hold thy tongue!"
Dance and the feast over, it became the Admiral's turn. He was set not to seem dejected, not to give any Spaniard nor any Indian reason to say, "This Genoese—or this god—does not sustain misfortune!" But he sat calm, pleased with all; brotherly, fatherly, by that big, easy, contented15 cacique. Now he would furnish the entertainment! Among us we had one Diego Minas, a huge man and as mighty16 a bowman as any in Flanders or England. Him the Admiral now put forward with his great crossbow and long arrows. A stir ran around. "Carib! Carib!" We made out that those mysterious Caribs had bows and arrows, though not great ones like this. Guacanagari employed gestures and words that Luis Torres and I strove to understand. We gathered that several times in the memory of man the Caribs had come in many canoes, warred dreadfully, killed and taken away. More than that, somewhere in Hayti or Quisquaya or Hispaniola were certain people who knew the weapon. "Caonabo!" He repeated the name with respect and disliking. "Caonabo, Caonabo!" Perhaps the Caribs had made a settlement.
Diego fastened a leaf upon the bark of a tree and from a great distance transfixed it with an arrow, then in succession sent four others against the trunk, making precisely18 the form of a cross. The Indians cried, "Hai! Hai!" But when the four harquebus men set up their iron rests, fixed17 the harquebuses, and firing cut leaves and twigs19 from the same tree, there was a louder crying. And when there was dragged forth20, charged with powder and fired, one of the lombards taken from the Santa Maria, wider yet sprang the commotion21. Pedro Gutierrez and a young cavalier from the Nina deigned22 to show lance play, and Vicente Pinzon who had served against the Moors23 took a great sword and with it carved calabashes and severed24 green boughs25. The sword was very marvelous to them. We might have danced for them for Spain knows how to dance, or we might have sung for them, for our mariners26 sing at sea. But these were not the superior things we wished to show them.
Guacanagari, big and easy and gentle, said, "Live here, you who are so great and good! We will take you into the people. We shall be brothers." We understood them that the great white heron was their guardian27 spirit and would be ours. I said, "They do not think of it as just those stalking, stilly standing28 birds! It is a name for something hovering29, brooding, caring for them."
The Viceroy spoke30 with energy. "Tell them of Father, Son and Holy Ghost!"
Fray Ignatio stood and spoke, gentle and plain. Diego Colon31 made what headway he could. Guacanagari listened, attentive32. The Franciscan had a certainty that presently he might begin to baptize. His face glowed. I heard him say to the Admiral, "If it be possible, senor, leave me here when you return to Spain! I will convert this chief and all his people—by the time you come again there shall be a church!"
"Let me ponder it yet a while," answered the other.
He was thoughtful when he went back to the Nina. Vicente Pinzon, too, was anxious for light. "This ship is crowded to sinking! If we meet wretched weather, or if sickness break out, returning, we shall be in bad case!" Roderigo Sanchez also had his word. "Is it not very important, senor, that we should get the tidings to the Sovereigns? And we have now just this one small ship, and so far to go, and all manner of dangers!"
"Aye, it is important!" said the Admiral. "Let me think it out, senor."
He had not slept at all, thought Juan Lepe, when next morning he came among us. But he looked resolved, hardy33 to accomplish. He had his plan, and he gave it to us in his deep voice that always thrilled with much beside the momentary34 utterance35. We would build a fort here on shore, hard by this village, felling wood for it and using also the timbers of the Santa Maria. We would mount there her two guns and provide an arsenal36 with powder, shot, harquebuses and bows. Build a fort and call it La Navidad, because of Christmas day when was the wreck37. It should have a garrison38 of certainly thirty men, a man for each year of Our Lord's life when He began his mission. So many placed in Hispaniola would much lighten the Nina, which indeed must be lightened in order with safety to recross Ocean-Sea. For yes, we would go back to Palos! Go, and come again with many and better ships, with hidalgos and missionary39 priests, and very many men! In the meantime so many should stay at La Navidad.
"In less than a year—much less, I promise it—I the Admiral will be here again at La Navidad, when will come happy greeting between brothers in the greatest service of our own or many ages! Sea and land, God will keep us so long as we are His!"
All loved Christopherus Columbus that day. None was to be forced to stay at La Navidad. It was easy to gain thirty; in the end there tarried thirty-eight.
The building of the fort became a pleasurable enterprise. We broke up with singing the Santa Maria, and with her bones built the walls. Guacanagari and his people helped. All was hurried. The Admiral and Viceroy, now that his mind was made up, would depart as soon as might be.
We built La Navidad where it might view the sea, upon a hillside above a brown river sliding out to ocean. Beyond the stream, in the groves40, a quarter-league away, stood the hundred huts of Guarico. We built a tower and storehouse and wall of wood and we digged around all some kind of moat, and mounted three lombards. All that we could lift from the Santa Maria and what the Nina could spare us of arms, conveniences and food went into our arsenal and storehouse. We had a bubbling spring within the enclosure. When all was done the tower of La Navidad, though an infant beside towers of Europe, might suffice for the first here of its brood. It was done in a week from that shipwreck41.
Who was to be left at La Navidad? Leave was given to volunteer and the mariners' list was soon made up, good men and not so good. From the poop there volunteered Pedro Gutierrez and Roderigo de Escobedo. The Admiral did not block their wish, but he gave the command not to Escobedo who wished it, but to Diego de Arana whom he named to stay, having persuaded him who would rather have returned with the Nina. But he could trust Diego de Arana, and, with reason, he was not sure of those other hidalgos. De Arana stayed and fulfilled his trust, and died a brave man. Fray Ignatio would stay. "Bring me back, Senor, a goodly bell for the church of La Navidad! A bell and a font."
Juan Lepe would stay. There needed a physician. But also Jayme de Marchena would stay. He thought it out. Six months had not abolished the Holy Office nor converted to gentleness Don Pedro nor the Dominican.
But the Admiral had assigned me to return with the Nina. I told him in the evening between the sunset and the moonrise what was the difficulty. He was a man profoundly religious, and also a docile42 son of the Church. But I knew him, and I knew that he would find reasons in the Bible for not giving me up. The deep man, the whole man, was not in the grasp of bishop43 or inquisitor or papal bull.
He agreed. "Aye, it is wiser! I count two months to Spain, seeing that we may not have so favorable a voyage. Three or maybe four there, for our welcome at court, and for the gathering44 a fleet—easy now to gather for all will flock to it, and masters and owners cry, 'Take my ship—and mine!' Two months again to recross. Look for me it may be in July, it may be in August, it may be in September!"
The Viceroy spoke to us, gathered by our fort, under the banner of Castile, with behind us on hill brow a cross gleaming. Again, all that we had done for the world and might further do! Again, we returning on the Nina or we remaining at La Navidad were as crusaders, knights45 of the Order of the Purpose of God! "Cherish good—oh, men of the sea and the land, cherish good! Who betrays here betrays almost as Judas! The Purpose of God is Strength with Wisdom and Charity which only can make joy! Therefore be ye here at La Navidad strong, wise and charitable!"
He said more, and he gave many an explicit46 direction, but that was the gist47 of all. Strength, wisdom and charity.
Likewise he spoke to the Indians and they listened and promised and meant good. An affection had sprung between Guacanagari and Christopherus Columbus. So different they looked! and yet in the breast of each dwelled much guilelessness and the ability to wonder and revere48. The Viceroy saw in this big, docile ruler of Guarico however far that might extend, one who would presently be baptized and become a Christian49 chief, man of the Viceroy of Hispaniola, as the latter was man of the Sovereigns of Spain. All his people would follow Guacanagari. He saw Christendom here in the west, and a great feudal50 society, acknowledging Castile for overlord, and Alexander the Sixth as its spiritual ruler.
Guacanagari may have seen friends in the gods, and especially in this their cacique, who with others that they would bring, would be drawn51 into Guarico and made one and whole with the people of the heron. But he never saw Guacanagari displanted—never saw Europe armed and warlike, hungry and thirsty.
The Nina and La Navidad bade with tears each the other farewell. It was the second of January, fourteen hundred and ninety-three. We had mass under the palm trees, by the cross, above the fort. Fray Ignatio blessed the going, blessed the staying. We embraced, we loved one another, we parted. The Nina was so small a ship, even there just before us on the blue water! So soon, so soon, the wind blowing from the land, she was smaller yet, smaller, smaller, a cock boat, a chip, gone!
Thirty-eight white men watched her from the hill above the fort, and of the thirty-eight Juan Lepe was the only one who saw the Admiral come again.
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1
momentous
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| adj.重要的，重大的 | |
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iguana
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| n.美洲大蜥蜴，鬣鳞蜥 | |
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gourds
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| n.葫芦( gourd的名词复数 ) | |
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cleansing
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| n. 净化(垃圾) adj. 清洁用的 动词cleanse的现在分词 | |
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5
comely
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| adj.漂亮的，合宜的 | |
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maidens
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| 处女( maiden的名词复数 )； 少女； 未婚女子； （板球运动）未得分的一轮投球 | |
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7
cowered
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| v.畏缩，抖缩( cower的过去式 ) | |
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supplication
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| n.恳求，祈愿，哀求 | |
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fray
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| v.争吵；打斗；磨损，磨破；n.吵架；打斗 | |
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10
glower
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| v.怒目而视 | |
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glowered
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| v.怒视( glower的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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reconciliation
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| n.和解，和谐，一致 | |
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13
acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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14
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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19
twigs
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| 细枝，嫩枝( twig的名词复数 ) | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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commotion
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| n.骚动，动乱 | |
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deigned
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| v.屈尊，俯就( deign的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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moors
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| v.停泊，系泊（船只）( moor的第三人称单数 ) | |
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severed
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| v.切断，断绝( sever的过去式和过去分词 )；断，裂 | |
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boughs
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| 大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
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mariners
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| 海员，水手（mariner的复数形式） | |
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guardian
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| n.监护人；守卫者，保护者 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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hovering
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| 鸟( hover的现在分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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30
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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colon
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| n.冒号，结肠，直肠 | |
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32
attentive
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| adj.注意的，专心的；关心(别人)的，殷勤的 | |
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hardy
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| adj.勇敢的，果断的，吃苦的；耐寒的 | |
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momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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utterance
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| n.用言语表达，话语，言语 | |
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arsenal
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| n.兵工厂，军械库 | |
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wreck
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| n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难 | |
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garrison
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| n.卫戍部队；驻地，卫戍区；vt.派(兵)驻防 | |
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missionary
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| adj.教会的，传教(士)的；n.传教士 | |
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40
groves
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| 树丛，小树林( grove的名词复数 ) | |
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41
shipwreck
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| n.船舶失事，海难 | |
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42
docile
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| adj.驯服的，易控制的，容易教的 | |
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43
bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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45
knights
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| 骑士； （中古时代的）武士( knight的名词复数 )； 骑士； 爵士； （国际象棋中）马 | |
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46
explicit
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| adj.详述的，明确的；坦率的；显然的 | |
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gist
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| n.要旨；梗概 | |
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48
revere
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| vt.尊崇，崇敬，敬畏 | |
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49
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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50
feudal
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| adj.封建的，封地的，领地的 | |
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51
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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