american-holocaust

202 AMERICAN HOLOCAUSTsecond voyage. Instead of the fewer than 100 men he had brought on theinitial expedition, he recommended that he be allowed to transport twentytimes that number "so that the country may be made more secure and sothat it may be more expeditiously won and managed." So great was thesupply of gold that awaited them, and so effortless would be its collection,he believed, that he urged the sovereigns to establish on the islands magistratesand notaries to oversee what he repeatedly referred to as the "gathering"of this fabulous wealth, all of which was to be "immediately meltedand marked . . . and weighed" and placed in carefully guarded chests. Healso proposed that "of all the gold which may be found, one percent bereserved for the erection of churches and their furniture and for the supportof the priests or friars attached to them." 20 One percent may notappear to be much, but if the Admiral's estimate of how much gold awaitedthem had been even close to the truth, one percent could have paid forcathedrals.Following the deduction for the Church's one percent of all the goldthat was gathered, and a little something for the magistrates and notaries,Columbus recommended that during the first year of Hispaniola's colonizationthose who did the gathering be allowed to keep one-half of whatthey personally collected, the other half going to the Crown. After the firstyear this proportional division was to be reassessed, in light of the amountof treasure actually found. Considering the immensity of riches that awaitedthem, however, and "since, owing to the greed for gold, everyone willprefer to seek it rather than engage in other necessary occupations," Columbussuggested that "during a part of the year hunting for gold shouldbe prohibited, so that there may be on the said island an opportunity forperforming other tasks of importance to it." 21Between the time of his return from the first voyage and the date ofembarkation for the second journey, word had spread everywhere in Spainof the gold and souls that Columbus had found. No longer would therebe any need to enlist the services of wanted criminals or other lowlife tostaff the ships of the enterprise to the Indies. The Admiral's enthusiasmwas infectious, as was his avarice. The others aboard the ships that sailedwith Columbus on this second voyage-and those who were to follow inyears and decades to come-rarely were possessed by the array of motivesthat drove his quest for discovery and conquest. Some just wanted to saveheathens. Far more just wanted to get rich. But operating in tandem, thesetwo simple goals spelled disaster for the indigenous peoples who welcomedthe shiploads-in time the floodtide-of Europeans who came as reapersof souls and of gold. That is because, initially at least, there were few soulswishing to be converted and very little gold to be had. Nor was eitherpursuit much helped by the furious epidemics that were unleashed by theEuropeans soon after they came into contact with their native hosts.The men aboard the Niiia, the Pinta, and the Santa Marfa almost cer-