History of Central America, Volume 1, 1501-1530: The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, Volume 6Bancroft, Hubert Howe
History
History of Central America, Volume 1, 1501-1530: The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, Volume 6
Bancroft, Hubert Howe
Central America -- History
As much to keep his people occupied as through any expectation of
profit, Columbus sent another expedition into the interior of Hayti, and
himself crossed to the south side of Cuba in three caravels, intending
thence to reach Cathay. Soon he discovered to the southward a lofty
isle, which he called at first Santa Gloria, then Santiago, but which
finally retained its native name, Jamaica, that is to say, Island of
Springs. After reaching nearly the western end of Cuba, thinking it
still the continent of Asia, and that possibly he might by that way
reach Spain, in which event he could then see what was beyond, he
coasted the south sides of Jamaica and Hayti, and returned to Isabela,
where he arrived insensible from excitement and fatigue. When he awoke
to bodily suffering, which for a time had been drowned in delirious
energy, there, to his great joy, he found his brother Bartolomé, who
had come from Spain with three well-laden ships to his assistance.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: COLONIZATION A FAILURE.]
Great events generally choose great men for their accomplishment, though
not unfrequently we see no small dust raised by an insignificant agent.
As a mariner and discoverer, Columbus had no superior; as colonist and
governor, he had by this time proved himself a failure. There are some
things great men cannot do as well as their inferiors. It was one thing
to rule at sea, and quite another to rule on shore. In bringing to his
India these unruly Spaniards, he had sown for himself the whirlwind.
Had he been more judicious in the selection of his followers, his
later days would have been more successful as well as more peaceful.
Discovery was his infatuation; he was never for a moment unattended by
a consuming curiosity to find a western way to civilized India. Had he
been possessed of sound practical judgment in the matter, of the same
knowledge of himself and of political affairs that he had of navigation,
he would have seen that he could not, at the same time, gratify his
passion for discovery and successfully govern colonies. In his fatal
desire to assume rulership, and upon the ill-understood reports of
simple savages, with no knowledge of the resources or capabilities of
the country, without definite purpose or mature plans, he had brought
upon himself an avalanche of woes. Beside his incapacity for such a
task, his position was rendered all the more trying by the fact that he
was a foreigner, whose arbitrary acts galled his impatient subordinates,
and finally wrought them to the pitch of open rebellion. The Spaniards
were quick enough to perceive that this Genoese sailor was in no wise
fitted to lay the foundation of a prosperous Spanish colony; and when
during his absence he left in command his brother, to whom attached no
prestige of high achievement to make up for his misfortune in not being
born in Spain, complications grew daily worse. Even the ecclesiastics
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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