american-holocaust

SEX, RACE AND HOLY WAR 203tainly spread strange, new diseases among the people of the islands theyvisited during the first Spanish excursion through the Caribbean from Octoberof 1492 through January of 1493. But, as we saw in an earlier chapter,it was with the landing of the ships of the second voyage, on thenorthern coast of Hispaniola in January of 1494, that the first knownexplosion of European epidemic disease occurred. Ferdinand and Isabellahad instructed Columbus not to mistreat the Indians he encountered onthis second voyage. That was their word. With their deed, however, theyloaded his ships with hundreds of heavily armed and armored infantry andcavalrymen, many of them battle-hardened and fresh from victory over thehated Moors in Granada. As Hispaniola's natives retreated inland fromthe deadly epidemics that followed immediately upon the landing of theSpanish troops, they were pursued by these soldiers of fortune who hadno time to waste.Consulting his classical sources, Columbus determined that "accordingto Ptolemy there must be plenty of gold in the rivers" of this huge island.When one of the military parties he sent out returned with three pieces ofgold that had been taken from an Indian settlement, Columbus "and allof us made merry," recalled one of the participants in the revelry, "notcaring any longer about any sort of spicery but only of this blessed gold.Because of this," he continued, "the Lord Admiral wrote to the King thathe was hoping to be able shortly to give him as much gold as the ironmines of Biscay gave him iron." 22 In this excited mood Columbus sent anumber of ships back to Spain-and 500 troops inland to find the gold.Although "not too well fitted out with clothes," wrote Michele de Cuneo,they set out on their trek:[B]etween going, staying, and returning, we spent 29 days with terrible weather,bad food and worse drink; nevertheless, out of covetousness of that gold, weall kept strong and lusty. We crossed going and coming two very rapid rivers,as I have mentioned above, swimming; and those who did not knowhow to swim had two Indians who carried them swimming; the same, outof friendship and for a few trifles that we gave them, carried across on topof their heads our clothes, arms and everything else there was to be carried. 23The trip was a painful ordeal covering many miles through difficult country.And when they reached the place they were seeking they ••built a fortof wood in the name of St. Thomas." There these hundreds of Spanishtroops and adventurers frantically fished in the rivers that Ptolemy hadsaid would be filled with treasure, "but," wrote Cuneo, "never was foundby anyone a single grain of gold." He then added portentously: "For thisreason we were very displeased with the local Indians." 24For months to follow, this pattern was repeated. Although there wasgold on the island, and although the conquistadors ultimately found what-