VOYAGE OF STRANGERS (30 page)

“Excellency.” I bowed and went upon this errand without saying more. No matter how eloquent my plea on behalf of the Taino, he would not hear it.

By the time the ships were ready to depart, Rachel had received three proposals of marriage from men of the colony. More would have offered, had she not made it generally known that the suitor of a girl not yet fifteen could expect only quick rejection, and if he protested, ridicule.

Hutia departed for the mountain caves, after a tearful scene with Rachel. I witnessed it because my fear for what might happen if I left them alone together exceeded the discomfort of being present while she pleaded with him to accompany us to Europe.

“So you go with her,” Hutia said. “You have had enough of paradise.”

“We have already destroyed paradise,” I said. “Hutia, I bitterly regret it, and I can no longer stomach being part of that destruction. Spain can send unlimited ships with horses and armored men, until the last Taino in the deepest cave, whether hiding or resisting, is subdued.”

“Hutia, please come with us!” Rachel said. “They will kill you or make you a slave. How can that be better than star
ting a new life in Italy with us—with me?”

“You would have me betray my people?”

“Is survival itself a betrayal?” Tears streamed down her face. “I don’t think so.”

“Rachel, I cannot.” He looked at her with longing in his eyes. “Perhaps I am not meant to survive.”

“No! Don't say that!” Rachel sobbed.

“Brother,” Hutia said, “will you too try to persuade me?”

“It is your decision. I would be glad if you chose to trust yourself to us, but I honor you for your loyalty to your people.”

“Honor!” Rachel said on a flood of tears. “Oh, you stupid, stupid
men
! We could have been
happy
!”

She fled, sobbing, I hoped to Pilar’s motherly arms to weep away some of her pain.

“I didn’t tell Rachel the worst,” Hutia said when she was gone. “Some of my people have so given in to despair that they have taken poison, the juice of the
yuca
.”

“Promise me at least that you will not do that!” I said, horrified.

“I will not. But it is a mercy to those they would execute, like the
cacique
from the village where—your village.”

I could not speak. I gave him the embrace of a brother.

Happiness was in short supply when we boarded our caravel, Captain Torres’s flagship, on the morning of our departure. The returning Christian soldiers, gentlemen, and sailors looked cheerful enough as they patted the pouches of gold hidden on their persons, for all had ignored the prohibition against amassing personal wealth. Yet there hung about them a kind of puzzled disappointment, as if paradise had somehow failed their expectations.

The five hundred naked Taino being herded aboard and prodded into the dank and lightless holds could not have been more wretched. Those guarding them had indeed picked “the best specimens,” strong young men and women who might survive the voyage and bring good prices in Seville. Taino slaves would be a novelty among Africans  from the Guinea Coast, Guanche from the Canaries, and Moors taken in the recent war.

“It is unbearable! Unbearable!” Rachel said under her breath. “Look, they are allowing the Christians to have the pick of those who are left on the shore. Ugh! That vile Cuneo has two girls by the arm. They cannot be more than ten or eleven!”

“I believe he is to sail with us,” I said.

“
B’ruch atah Adonai Elohenu
, please, please, not on our ship!”

“Rachel, that is blasphemy.”

“I don’t care! Anyhow, Adonai heard my prayer. See, Cuneo is boarding the second caravel.”

She was right. He dragged the two weeping girls along. I pitied them.

The Admiral had recommended me to Captain Torres as a scribe and also as an interpreter, “if indeed,” he had said, “there should be occasion to address the captives.” So I did not need to leap into action as the sailors went about raising sail and weighing anchor to get us underway. My position would also enable me to make Rachel more comfortable than she might otherwise be, as no other women were returning. Captain Torres had promised to look after her as well, at least to the extent of not allowing any on board to offer her insult.

“Come, Rachel,” I said. “Let us find shelter at the lee rail near the bow and turn our faces toward home.”

“Not yet,” Rachel said. She took my hand and drew me after her toward the stern, where the green bulk of Hispaniola slowly receded. “I must finish saying goodbye.”

We both leaned on the rail. I took a deep breath of the clean salt air and said my own words of farewell silently, as well as prayers that Ha’shem would carry me safely to the new life that lay beyond what could only be a miserable voyage.

“Diego, look!” Rachel shrieked. “Someone is swimming after us! I believe it is Hutia! It is! It is!”

It had been long since any Taino swam out to a Spanish ship in expectation of a warm welcome. Hutia looked not joyful but determined. Spray flew with every stroke of his muscular brown arms. If the caravel had not still been coming about to catch the wind, he could not have caught us. I threw him a rope. Luckily, nobody was watching as he clambered aboard. Rachel flew to him, laughing and crying as she flung her arms about his neck. He was not naked but wore a dripping tunic of Indian cotton.

“Let him go, Rachel,” I warned. “We must establish Hutia as our slave if he is not to be taken captive.”

We were challenged only once as we led Hutia to the corner of the deck where we planned to establish ourselves.

“I will give you a dry shirt and breeches,” I was saying when a couple of soldiers accosted us.

“Here, what’s this one doing up out of the hold?” One of them held out a burly arm to bar our way.

“He is my servant,” Rachel said, looking down her nose at him like a court lady, although he towered over her.

“Is that so, missy?” The other, furred like a beast with coarse black hair, was disposed to be amused. “Who says so?”

“I do.” I stepped forward, hand on the hilt of the sword I now wore along with my Toledo knife.

Rachel raised her chin.

“Do you doubt my word?” Her hand went to her back, where I knew she had tucked into her skirts an envenomed fishbone dagger.

Hutia forbore to cower but stood straight and calm beside us.

The soldiers looked as if they would not mind a fight. I thought the outcome of such a fight could only be a sorry one for us, even if we overcame them. So we stood at an impasse until Fernando swung down from the rigging to range himself beside us.

“Be on your way, fellows,” he said. “This gentleman and lady have the captain’s ear, and I would advise you not to test their influence.”

One soldier gave a growl of disgust, the other a bark of laughter.

“To the devil with it, then. What’s one cannibal more or less? Mind he don’t eat you for dinner, missy!”

They swaggered away.

“All right?” Fernando said.

I nodded. Rachel gave him a misty eyed smile.

“Then I’ll be about my duties.” He clapped me on the shoulder and swung back into the rigging. The three of us were left alone, or as alone as we could be on the crowded deck.

“So I am now your slave?” Hutia said.

“No!” Rachel and I spoke at once.

“No matter,” he said. “I can buy my freedom.”

I had thought he wore a tunic only to distinguish himself from the captives. But now he reached inside it and brought out a sack of gold so weighty that I marveled that he had been able to swim with it.

“No!” I said. “It is blood treasure. I will not take it. I don’t want it.”

After turning the matter over in my mind many times, I had taken no gold for myself when we embarked. Nor had I asked Rachel what she carried in her baggage.

“Call it my dowry,” Hutia said, “for I mean to marry Rachel. It is mine to give, for it belongs to my people. I value it as little as ever, but you have taught me that in Europe gold can buy us what we need most: freedom and transport.”

“Take it, Diego,” Rachel said. “You can carry it more safely than Hutia can.”

“Very well.” I stowed the sack about my person. I would have to find a better hiding place for it. “You are right. Hutia must not risk being found with it.”

             
“So we are to marry?” Rachel smiled at Hutia in a way that made me envy both of them.

“As soon as you are old enough,” he said, “and I can be baptized Jewish.”

“We don’t baptize.” I could not help laughing. “We are not eager for converts like the Christians. You must study and learn first.”

“Then you must teach me,” he said. “I will learn to perform the ceremonies of worship for Ha’shem and Adonai.”

“Our God is One,” Rachel corrected him. “He simply has many names.”

Hutia shrugged. The distinction made as little sense to him as the Christians’ Trinity did to us.

“Besides,” Rachel said, “you already have a religion of your own. You must continue to pray to Yucahu and Atabey.”

“I have said my farewells to Yucahu and Atabey,” Hutia said. “I am going where they will no longer be able to hear my voice. So I must pray to your Adonai to take me under his protection.”

“That must be our prayer too,” I said. “This voyage cannot be a happy one. Many will die.”

“But we will survive,” Rachel said. “The Jews have ever been survivors.”

“Then I will be a Jew,” Hutia said.

“We are called the Chosen People,” I told him. “In times like these, one would think we are Chosen only for suffering.”

“So are we Taino, it seems,” Hutia said.

Later, while Rachel and Hutia discussed what tasks would best allow him to be seen doing her bidding at all times, I made my way back to the stern. Hispaniola had vanished behind us, but we still sailed through turquoise seas past islands rimmed with scalloped shores of sand and others set with blue-green mountain peaks. As I watched them stream by, for a moment it seemed to me that I saw a host of naked golden people swimming toward me. As they approached, they laughed with delight at the prospect of new friends and such curious treasures as red caps, glass beads, and hawk’s bells. For such gifts as these, or simply for
matu’m
, generosity, they willingly offered not only gold, but love.

***

Historical
Timeline

October 19, 1469

Marriage of King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile

February 6, 1481

Inquisition holds first
auto da fe
in Seville

January 2, 1492

Ferdinand and Isabella defeat the Moors at Granada, completing the Reconquista

August 3, 1492

Columbus’s first voyage begins when the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria set sail from Palos; all Jews leave Spain on pain of death

October 12, 1492

Ships make landfall at San Salvador (called Guanahani by the Taino) and are greeted by the Taino

December 24, 1492

The Santa Maria is wrecked on shoals on the north coast of               Hispaniola (called Quisqueya by the Taino)

January 4, 1493

The Niña and the Pinta leave Hispaniola, leaving 40 men at the new fort of La Navidad

February 16, 1493

Columbus reaches the Azores

March 4, 1493

Columbus arrives in Lisbon

March 15, 1493

Columbus makes harbor in Palos

April 2, 1493

Passover, total eclipse of the moon

April 7, 1493

Easter Sunday, Columbus, in Seville, receives letter officially appointing him Admiral of the Ocean Sea, Viceroy and Governor of the Indies

April
15-20, 1493

Columbus arrives in Barcelona and is
received by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella at the Alcazar

May 23, 1493

Don Juan de Fonseca, Archdeacon of Seville, is appointed with Columbus to make all preparations for the second voyage

September 25, 1493

Columbus and a fleet of 17 ships sail from Cadiz

October
7-10, 1493

Fleet sails from the Canaries

November 3, 1493

Fleet makes landfall at Dominica (called Caire by the Taino)

November 4, 1493

Columbus lands on Guadalupe (now
called Guadeloupe); a shore party gets lost for four days

November 14, 1493

Fleet lands on Santa Cruz (now called St. Croix); first battle with the Indians

November 27, 1493

Fleet anchors off Hispaniola (called Quisqueya by the Taino), near the site of La Navidad in what is now the Dominican Republic