Whereat the place buzzed loudly, and one saw that
many would go.
Many did go upon the ships that sailed not in a few
days but a few weeks. Some went for good reasons,
but many for ill. Juan Lepe heard afar and ahead
of time the great tide of talk when they should arrive
in Spain! And though many went who wished the
Admiral ill, many stayed, and forever Roldan made
for him more enemies, open or secret.
He sent, it is true, upon those ships friends to plead
his cause. Don Francisco de Las Casas went to
Spain and others went. And he sent letters.
Juan Lepe, much in his house, tending him who needed
the physician Long-Rest and Ease-of-Mind, heard these
letters read. There was one to the Sovereigns
in which he related with simple eloquence that discovery
to the South, and his assurance that he had touched
the foot of the Mount of all the World. With
this letter he sent a hundred pearls, the golden frog
and other gold. Again he took paper and wrote
of the attitude of all things in Hispaniola, of Roldan
and evil men, of the Adelantado’s vigilance,
justice and mercy, of natural difficulties and the
need to wait on time, of the Indians. He begged
that there be sent him ample supplies and good men,
and withal friars for the Indian salvation, and some
learned, wise and able lawyer and judge, much needed
to give the law upon a thousand complaints brought
by childish and factious men. And if the Sovereigns
saw fit to send out some just and lofty mind to take
evidence from all as to their servant Christopherus
Columbus’s deeds and public acts and care of
their Majesties’ New Lands and all the souls
therein, such an one would be welcomed by their Graces’
true servant.
So he himself asked for a commissioner—but
he never thought of such an one as Francisco de Bobadilla!
So the ships sailed. Time passed.
UP and down went the great Roldan scission. Up
and down went Indian revolt, repression, fresh revolt,
fresh repression. On flowed time. Ships came
in, one bearing Don Diego; ships went out. Time
passed. Alonso de Ojeda, who by now was no more
than half his friend, returned to Spain and there
proposed to the Sovereigns a voyage of his own to
that Southern Continent that never had the Admiral
chance to return to! The Sovereigns now were
giving such consent to this one and to that one, breaking
their pact with Christopherus Columbus. In our
world it was now impossible that that pact should be
letter-kept, but the Genoese did not see it so.
Ojeda sailed from Cadiz for Paria with four ships
and a concourse of adventurers. With him went
the pilot Juan de la Cosa, and a geographer of Florence,
Messer Amerigo Vespucci.
It came to us in Hispaniola that Ojeda was gone.
Now I saw the Admiral’s heart begin to break.
Yet Ojeda in his voyage did not find the Earthly Paradise,
only went along that coast as we had done, gathered
pearls, and returned.
