Produced by David Widger
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
AND THE NEW WORLD OF HIS DISCOVERY
A NARRATIVE BY FILSON YOUNG
Volume 3
THE NEW WORLD
CHAPTER I
THE ENCHANTED ISLANDS
Columbus did not intend to remain long at San Salvador. His landfallthere, although it signified the realisation of one part of his dream,was only the starting-point of his explorations in the New World. Nowthat he had made good his undertaking to "discover new lands," he had tomake good his assurance that they were full of wealth and would swell therevenues of the King and Queen of Spain. A brief survey of this firstisland was all he could afford time for; and after the first exquisiteimpression of the white beach, and the blue curve of the bay sparkling inthe sunshine, and the soft prismatic colours of the acanthus beneath thegreen wall of the woods had been savoured and enjoyed, he was anxious topush on to the rich lands of the Orient of which he believed this islandto be only an outpost.
On the morning after his arrival the natives came crowding down to thebeach and got down their canoes, which were dug out of the trunk of asingle tree, and some of which were large enough to contain forty orforty-five men: They came paddling out to the ship, sometimes, in thecase of the smaller canoes which only held one man, being upset by thesurf, and swimming gaily round and righting their canoes again andbailing them out with gourds. They brought balls of spun cotton, andparrots and spears. All their possessions, indeed, were represented inthe offerings they made to the strangers. Columbus, whose eye was nowvery steadily fixed on the main chance, tried to find out if they had anygold, for he noticed that some of them wore in their noses a ring thatlooked as though it were made of that metal; and by making signs he askedthem if there was any more of it to be had. He understood them to saythat to the south of the island there dwelt a king who had large vesselsof gold, and a great many of them; he tried to suggest that some of thenatives should come and show him the way, but he "saw that they were notinterested in going."
The story of the Rheingold was to be enacted over again, and the whole ofthe evils that followed in its glittering train to be exemplified in thisvoyage of discovery. To the natives of these islands, who guarded theyellow metal and loved it merely for its shining beauty, it was harmlessand powerless; they could not buy anything with it, nor did they seek byits aid to secure any other enjoyments but the happiness of looking at itand admiring it. As soon as the gold was ravished from their keeping,however, began the reign of lust and cruelty that always has attended andalways will attend the knowledge that things can be bought with it. Inall its history, since first it was brought up from the dark bowels ofthe earth to glitter in the light of day, there is no more significantscene than this that took place on the bright sands of San Salvador solong ago—Columbus attentively examining the ring in the nose of a happysavage, and trying to persuade him to show him the place that it wasbrought from; and the savage "not interested in going."
From his sign-conversation with the natives Columbus understood thatthere was land to the south or the south-west, and also to thenorth-west, and that the people from the north-west went to thesouth-west in search of gold and precious stones. In