The Admiral arrives in Hispaniola and from there
returns to Castile, where the Lord raises him to
His Holy Glory at Valladolid
Once the Christians were brought to obedience the Indians were more punctual in bringing provisions for barter. We had now been in Jamaica for a year, less only a few days, when the vessel arrived which Diego Mendez had bought and stocked at Santo Domingo with the Admiral’s money; and all, friends and foes alike, went aboard. On 28 June we set sail and had a very laborious passage, since the winds and currents were continuously against us, as we have said they always are on the crossing from Jamaica to Santo Domingo, which we entered on 13 August 1504 with a great longing to rest. The governor gave the Admiral a great reception and offered him his house for a lodging. But though the governor flattered he also stung: for at the same time he released Porras, who had been the leader of the rebellion, and tried to punish those who had been responsible for his imprisonment. He also presumed to pronounce judgement on other matters and misdemeanours which were the concern of the Catholic sovereigns alone, since they had assigned responsibility for them to the Admiral as captain general of their fleet. The governor conferred many favours on the Admiral but always with a false smile and a pretence of friendship to his face. This continued until our ship was refitted and another equipped, in which the Admiral embarked his relations and servants, most of the others remaining in Hispaniloa.
We raised sail on 12 September, and had gone two leagues beyond the river mouth when the mast of the other ship broke at deck level and it had to put back to port. We in our ship, however, continued on our voyage enjoying good weather until we were a third of the way across the ocean. Then one day we were struck by a most violent storm, which put the ship in great danger. On the following day, Saturday, 19 October, when the weather had turned fair and we were taking a rest, our mast broke in four pieces. But thanks to the adelantado’s bravery and the ingenuity of the Admiral, who was confined to his bed by gout and did not get up, a jury mast was constructed from one of the lateen yards and partially braced with ropes and timbers from the forecasde and the sterncastle, which we demolished. Our mizzen mast was brought down by another storm, and it was God’s will that we should sail on in this sorry plight for 700 leagues, at the end of which we entered the harbour of San Lucar de Barameda, on 17 November 1504. From here we went to Seville, where the Admiral took some rest from the hardships he had suffered.
Then in May 1505 he left Seville for the court of the Catholic King whose glorious Queen had been summoned to a higher life at the end of the previous year. The Admiral felt great grief at the death of Queen Isabela, for it had been she who had supported and favoured him, and he had always found the King somewhat abrupt and unfavourable to his projects, and this attitude was clearly shown by the King’s reception on this occasion. Although Ferdinand received him with apparent favour and pretended that he was about to restore him to his old authority, he planned to strip him of it altogether, and would have done so if he had not been prevented by shame, which, as we have said, has great power over noble minds. His Highness himself and her most serene Majesty had conferred this authority on him when he set out on the voyage we have just described. But when the affairs of the Indies showed signs of turning out as they did, and the Catholic King saw the large share that the Admiral would receive by virtue of the agreement which they had made with him, he tried to retain sole jurisdiction over the Indies for himself and to fill at his own will and pleasure those offices that were rightfully in the Admiral’s appointment. He therefore proposed fresh terms of agreement and a new way of rewarding the Admiral. But God did not permit these changes to take place, for his most serene Majesty Philip I arrived to assume the crown of Spain,* and at the very moment when the Catholic king came out of Vallalolid to receive him, the Admiral, suffering more severely still from his gout and other ills and from grief at seeing himself so fallen from his high estate, yielded his soul to God on Ascension Day, 20 May 1509, in that city, after receiving with great devotion all the sacraments of the Church and pronouncing these last words: ‘Into Thy hands, O God, I commend my soul.† And we can believe that of His great goodness He indeed received the Admiral into His glory, into which may He lead us with him. Amen.