Columbus_ The Four Voyages - Laurence Bergreen [50]
“Now I have given orders to erect a tower and a fortress, all very well done, and a great moat, not that I believe it to be necessary for these people, for I take for granted that with this people I could conquer all this island, which I believe to be bigger than Portugal”—Spain’s principal rival for empire—“and double the number of inhabitants.” In this revised world order, he viewed the Indians, his gentle, generous, resourceful protectors, in a harsh new light, “naked and without arms and very cowardly, beyond hope of cure.” His tears had dried, and his meaning was clear; he considered them ripe for exploitation. Their weakness became his strength, and he turned to the God-given task of empire building. “It is right that this tower should be built,” he insisted, “and it is as it should be, being so far from Your Highnesses, and that they may recognize the skill of Your Highnesses’ subjects, and what they can do, so they may serve them”—Columbus chose his words carefully—“with love and fear.”
The matériel for the stronghold came from Santa María, transmuted into a new purpose, “boards of which to build the whole fortress.” They worked diligently, completing a rudimentary structure in only ten days, a microcosm of confinement and order in a sea of freedom and occasional chaos. Indicating the rapid advance of his plans, he gave orders for “provisions of bread and wine for more than a year, and seeds to sow, and the ship’s barge, and a caulker, a carpenter, a gunner and a cooper.” He envisioned a stream of wealth in the form of gold and spices flowing from this fortress directly to Castile and the cause of a new Crusade. He became so imbued with a sense of divine mission that he declared that “all the gain of this Enterprise should be spent in the conquest of Jerusalem,” as he had once mentioned to his Sovereigns, whom he recalled smiling indulgently at the thought. Inconsistent, inspired, and self-serving, Columbus was proving himself a brilliant but mercurial explorer.
Couched in spiritual and political idealism, the sudden, unauthorized construction of a manned fort served Columbus’s interests first and foremost. Until he had hit upon this scheme, he had contracted for a single voyage. Now he would have to return in the name of Spain, if only to relieve the crew, who became hostages to his ambition, marooned off the coast of Haiti, unable to return home until he fetched them. Only Columbus and a few of his officers and pilots knew where in the world this fortress was located, and only they would be able to find it again. If Bartolomeu Dias had been able to think up a comparable scheme, he might not have been cast aside by his sovereign, King João of Portugal. Columbus would not allow Ferdinand and Isabella the same option; they would be duty bound to send him on another journey. For all its anticipation and daring, his voyage to the New World, rather than an end in itself, had become a prologue to a much grander adventure into empire, conquest, and conversion, one that would also serve, he hoped, as his avenue into history.
Guacanagarí returned at dawn on Thursday, December 27, hoping to delay Columbus’s departure with the promise of more gold. The Admiral continued to court his favor by inviting Guacanagarí, his brother, and another “very intimate relation” to dine with him, when they suddenly switched tactics and expressed the desire to go with Columbus to the wonderful