He said more, and he gave many an explicit direction,
but that was the gist 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 revere. The Viceroy saw in this big,
docile ruler of Guarico however far that might extend,
one who would presently be baptized and become a Christian
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 feudal 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 drawn 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.
THE butio of this town had been absent for some reason
in the great wood those days of the shipwreck and
the building of La Navidad. Now he was again here,
and I consorted with him and chiefly from him learned
their language. The Admiral had taken Diego Colon
to Spain, and to Spain was gone too Luis Torres, swearing
that he would come again. To Spain was gone Sancho,
but Beltran the cook stayed with us. Pedro and
Fernando also.
Time passed. With the ending of January the heat
increased. The butio knew all manner of simples;
he was doctor and priest together. He had a very
simple magic. He himself did not expect it to
reach the Great Spirit, but it might affect the innumerable
zemes or under and under-under spirits.
These barbarians, using other words for them, had
letter-notion of gnome, sylph, undine and salamander.
All things lived and took offense or became propitious.
Effort consisted in making them propitious. If
the effort was too great one of them killed you.
Then you went to the shadowy caves. There was
a paradise, too, beautiful and easy. But the
Great Spirit could not be hurt and had no wish to
hurt any one else, whether zemes or men.
To live with the Great Spirit, that was really the
Heron wish, though the little herons could not always
see it.
