Tordesillas

“ With my liberty thus confirmed, I hired a couple of mules, on which we mounted the next day, after taking leave of Cogollos, and thanking Tordesillas a thousand times for all his instances of friendship. We set forward cheerfully on the road to Madrid, to draw our deposit out of Signor Gabriel's hands, amounting to a thousand doubloons. On the road my fellow-traveller observed, If we are not rich enough to purchase a splendid property, we can at least secure ease and competency to ourselves. ”

“ I must close my letter somewhat shortly, for Doña Isabel de Alameda, that promised me to send it with one of hers that goeth to Cales (Cadiz) , hath sent her brother’s son, Don Juan de Alameda (fictitious) , to request the same, and I must not keep him awaiting. Be not thou disturbed, dear heart; God is as near to Tordesillas as to London, and He is stronger than all evil men and devils. Unto His keeping I commend thee. From Tordesillas, this Monday.
“Thine own to her little power, Annis Holland. ”

“ The friar Augustin de Tordesillas was one of the founders of the province of St. Gregory in Luzon. His narrative seems never to have been printed elsewhere. See Sbaralea's Supplement to Waddington, and N. Antonio's Bibliotheca Hispana Nova. ”

“ The latter power's remonstrances against this infringement of her former rights lead to the Treaty of Tordesillas (June 7, 1494) , in which, by mutual agreement between the sovereigns, a new line of demarcation is established to be drawn two hundred and seventy leagues farther west than that of Alexander VI; and another document (dated April 15, 1495) makes suitable arrangements for a scientific and equitable determination of this boundary. ”

“ Philip had died at Burgos, and his body was to be transferred to Granada, to be there interred in the sepulchre of the kings. This involved a journey from the north to the middle of Spain, and Tordesillas lay on the road. The scheme was to have the queen set out at the same time as the body of her husband. One and the same escort would thus serve for both. It has been supposed that there might be financial reasons for this arrangement. In our days, it has been said, no one would ever think of such economy. ”

“ In the spring of 1521 Padilla led out his ill-equipped forces and, by a stroke of fortune, captured the strong castle of Torrelobaton. Instead, however, of following up his success, he lingered while the Constable, after defeating the Count of Salvatierra in the north, marched with a fresh army to join his son at Tordesillas. Fear, and a suspicion that their leaders were busy making terms, spread confusion in the Comuneros' ranks. Many of the soldiers deserted, others betook themselves to indiscriminate plunder. ”

“ But the junta soon alienated the nobility by the boldness with which it asserted democracy and total abolition of privilege, while it courted defeat in the field by appointing to the supreme command of its forces not Padilla but Don Pedro de Giron, who had no recommendation but his high birth. After the army of the nobility had recaptured Tordesillas, Padilla did something to retrieve the loss by taking Torrelobaton and some other towns. ”

“ Twenty thousand citizens rallied to the cry of “Padilla y Comunidad!” and the movement spread from the Tagus to Salamanca and west{132}wards to the frontiers of Portugal. To Juana, imprisoned at Tordesillas, herself a Toledan, protestations of loyalty and devotion were addressed. But denounce her son’s fraudulently obtained sovereignty she would not. Meanwhile Charles’s forces were not idle. The Alcaide, Clemente de Aguayo, held the tower of San Martin, and Don Juan de Silva, the Alcazar, against the insurgents. But the townsmen were victorious. ”

“ In his Journal he has a testimonial to the fidelity with which the people of Tordesillas protected an English officer from a raiding party of French cavalry. There are some similar notes in British memoirs: e.g. ‘T.S.’ of the 71st expresses much gratitude for the kindness of the people of Peñaranda, who, when Hope’s division arrived in a drenched and frozen condition, rolled out barrels of spirits into the streets and gave every man a good dram before the regiments marched on. ”

“ These territorial concessions of the pope caused the possessions of Spain, in the western hemisphere, to be called the West Indies, and those of Portugal, in the eastern hemisphere, the East Indies. The position of the line of demarkation displeased the Portuguese. To settle the dispute [146] which it caused, the two countries sent commissioners to Tordesillas, Spain, who agreed, on the seventh of June, 1494, that the position of the line should be changed so that it should pass, north and south, three hundred and seventy leagues west of the Cape Verd Islands. ”

“ If they mean to harass us they do not succeed, for though we narrowly watch every movement they make, Ld. Wn. is not easily humbugged, and lets them wear out their shoes as much they please without disturbing his army.
The enemy’s Hd. Qrs. are, I believe, at Tordesillas, where they have one or two Divisions, 1 at Simancas, 1 opposite Pollos and Herreros, 1 at Toro. In short they extend along the river from Simancas to Toro, and have their reserves and Depôt at Valladolid. As to the exact disposition of their troops it is impossible to say, as they are continually moving. ”

“ This island is called Tortuga or Tortoise Island, owing to its shape, which slightly resembles that animal. Here it is, brothers, I propose that we should form our principal establishment, or, if you prefer it, our headquarters. The Port of Peace, and Port Margot, situated facing Tortoise Isle, will enable us to keep up an easy communication with St. Domingo: sheltered in our island, as in an impregnable fortress, we shall brave the efforts of the whole Spanish power. But I do not wish to deceive you, and must tell you everything; the Spaniards are on their guard ”

“ CHAPTER VI ANEGADA AND A BIT OF TREASURE-TROVE
North of St. John and so close to it as to appear, from a short distance, but a continuation, lies Tortola, the British isle which played so prominent a part in St. John’s early history. In beauty rivaling its once Danish neighbor, Tortola (or “the island of the turtle dove”) is even more forsaken,—an island of the blest given over to the blacks, the only white men being the resident magistrate and a half-dozen representatives of his Britannic Majesty,—while Roadtown, its capital, is but a tumble-down village of scarcely five hundred souls. ”

“ But Torellas is not so. My heart withers for him. You must understand, señor'—Juan turned anew to Cogan—'that Torellas is as my own son. He tells me all. I have seen him burn in one day ten letters—yes, his own heart burning for love, you understand. Such a boy! He should be a Seminarian. But her mother, she says it is scandalous! As if he could stop them from writing! He must give up bull-fighting! Torellas give up bull-fighting! Our matador, the nation's hero, give up—pir-r-h—if I were Torellas—No matter, I tell him to come to the house as before. [pg 306] Luis favors him. I favor him. ”

“ The island of Tortuga is situate on the north side of Hispaniola, in 20 deg. 30 min. latitude; its just extent is threescore leagues about. The Spaniards, who gave name to this island, called it so from the shape of the land, in some manner resembling a great sea-tortoise, called by them Tortuga-de-mar. The country is very mountainous, and full of rocks, and yet thick of lofty trees, that grow upon the hardest of those rocks, without partaking of a softer soil. ”

“ While doing a good deed, we are carrying out the plan so long resolved by ourselves, and at last we have found the impregnable spot we have so long desired. You all know the island of Tortuga, brethren? Separated only by a narrow channel from Saint Domingo, it rises like an advanced sentry in the middle of the sea. It is the eagle's nest, whence we will laughingly brave the fury of the Spaniards. To Tortuga, brethren!"
"To the island of the Tortoise!" the adventurers shouted, brandishing their weapons enthusiastically.
"Good!" Montbarts continued. ”

“ He was inconsolable when he reflected on his ignorance in that sublime art, till he was told that a very able magician resided in the suburbs of Toledo, named don Torribio. He immediately saddled his mule, departed for Toledo, and alighted at the door of no very superb dwelling, the habitation of that great man.
“Most reverend magician,” said he, addressing himself to the sage, “I am the dean of Badajos. The learned men of Spain all allow me to be their superior; but I am come to request from you a much greater honour, that of becoming your pupil. ”

“ All the able-bodied women who had not come out to meet us were sitting before the doors of their white houses, making lace mantillas and flounces for the young Queen-elect,—Torralba is famous for its lace-makers,—and they waved work-worn hands as we ran by, wishing us good speed, or throwing an improvised copla after the vanishing Gloria. ”

“ Spain had not in the sixteenth century ceased to be celebrated for its magicians, who still retained a modicum of the occult philosophy of the Moorish doctors of Toledo and Granada. Perhaps the most celebrated of these comparatively modern masters of magic was Doctor Eugenio Torralva, physician to the family of the Admiral of Castile. Educated at Rome, he early became a pronounced sceptic, and formed an intimacy with a certain Master Alfonso, a man who, after changing his Jewish faith for Islam, and that again for Christianity, had at last become a free-thinker. ”

“ You may imagine how grateful we are that he is now among us, instead of having fallen a victim to his chimerical enthusiasm. I hardly know how to deplore the event for Torrijos himself: death has spared him the bitter disappointment of at last being convinced that the people he would have made free are willing slaves, and that the time when Spain is to lift herself up from the dust has not yet come.
I went the other day with John to the Angerstein Gallery.... The delight I find in a fine painting is one of the greatest and most enduring pleasures I have ”

“ Since then the Tortoises have had peace from the Long-necked People—Oubaas Giraffe and old Three Sticks. It is only the Things of the Air, like Crows and Lammervangers, that still hunt them, and baasjes know how they do? They catch a poor Tortoise in their claws and fly away with him, high up over a kopje, and then they drop him on the stones—kabloops!—and there he lies with his shell all broken, and without a shell how can a Tortoise live? And then the Thing of the Air comes and eats him up, and that is the end of the poor Tortoise. But a Red Tortoise they never touch. ”

“ When in Rome it appears that Torralva had been so indiscreet as to summon Zequiel to appear before his patron, Cardinal Volterra, who now, hearing of the manner [338] in which his protégé had ‘prophesied’ the disaster to the Spanish arms, acquainted the Archbishop of Toledo with the means by which the doctor had received intelligence of the defeat. Torralva, ignorant of this, continued in his forecasts of political and other events, and soon found his reputation as a seer greatly enhanced. ”

“ Thus, when Torralba returned to Spain in 1510, being at the court of Ferdinand the Catholic, Zequiel told him that this prince would soon receive disagreeable news. Torralba hastened to inform the Archbishop of Toledo, Ximenez de Cisneros, and the great captain Gonzales Fernandez de Cordova; and the same day a courier brought letters from Africa, which announced the failure of the expedition against the Moors, and the death of Don Garcia de Toledo, son of the Duke of Alva, who commanded it. ”

“ To Tortuga, the home of the buccaneers, flocked malcontents, adventurers, real pirates, seamen, and all sorts of wild rovers of the sea and land, until the island became headquarters for the most lawless of French and British wanderers and outlaws. But all were bound together by a common hatred of the Spaniards; all were willing to enter into any wild enterprise that promised loot; all were absolutely fearless, unprincipled, ruthless, and daring ”

“ See Ludoviquo fighting by his side!
Who could have thought our gentle seneschal
Had pith and soul enough to fight so bravely?
SECOND WOMAN.
See, see! the vile Tortonians stand aghast:
They turn, they fly!
(Loud shouts heard without, and re-enter Tortona and his party, pursued by the Soldiers of the castle, led on by the Hermit.)
HERMIT.
Turn, valiant chieftain! the most gen'rous foe
Of dames, whose lords are absent; turn, for shame!
Do not disgrace thy noble enterprise
With wounds received behind. Whate'er their cause,
Tortona's lords have still been soldiers. ”

“ Their color was light, and if they were clothed and protected from the sun and air they would almost be as fair as the inhabitants of Spain. The temperature of the air was cool and exceedingly pleasant. The land is high, covered with plains and valleys, and the highest mountains are arable. No part of Castile could produce a territory comparable to this in beauty and fertility. The whole island and that of Tortuga are covered with cultivated fields, like the plain of Cordova. In these they raise ajes, which are slips set in the ground, at the end of which roots grow like carrots. ”

“ Another writer on Mexico, frequently consulted in the course of the present narrative, is Toribio de Benavente, or Motolinia, as he is still more frequently called, from his Indian cognomen. He was one of the twelve Franciscan missionaries who, at the request of Cortés, were sent out to New Spain immediately after the Conquest,{275} in 1523. Toribio’s humble attire, naked feet, and, in short, the poverty-stricken aspect which belongs to his order, frequently drew from the natives the exclamation of Motolinia, or “poor man.” ”