The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Volume II Part 34

After a long and visible reluctance, the queen acquiesced in sending out a commissioner to investigate the affairs of the colony. The person appointed to this delicate trust was Don Francisco de Bobadilla, a poor knight of Calatrava. He was invested with supreme powers of civil and criminal jurisdiction. He was to bring to trial and pa.s.s sentence on all such as had conspired against the authority of Columbus. He was authorized to take possession of the fortresses, vessels, public stores, and property of every description, to dispose of all offices, and to command whatever persons he might deem expedient for the tranquillity of the island, without distinction of rank, to return to Spain, and present themselves before the sovereigns. Such, in brief, was the sum of the extraordinary powers intrusted to Bobadilla. [26]

It is impossible now to determine what motives could have led to the selection of so incompetent an agent, for an office of such high responsibility. He seems to have been a weak and arrogant man, swelled up with immeasurable insolence by the brief authority thus undeservedly bestowed on him. From the very first, he regarded Columbus in the light of a convicted criminal, on whom it was his business to execute the sentence of the law. Accordingly, on his arrival at the island, after an ostentatious parade of his credentials, he commanded the admiral to appear before him, and, without affecting the forms of a legal inquiry, at once caused him to be manacled, and thrown into prison. Columbus submitted without the least show of resistance, displaying in this sad reverse that magnanimity of soul, which would have touched the heart of a generous adversary. Bobadilla, however, discovered no such sensibility; and, after raking together all the foul or frivolous calumnies, which hatred or the hope of favor could extort, he caused the whole loathsome ma.s.s of accusation to be sent back to Spain with the admiral, whom he commanded to be kept strictly in irons during the pa.s.sage; "afraid," says Ferdinand Columbus bitterly, "lest he might by any chance swim back again to the island." [27]

This excess of malice served, as usual, however, to defeat itself. So enormous an outrage shocked the minds of those most prejudiced against Columbus. All seemed to feel it as a national dishonor, that such indignities should be heaped on the man, who, whatever might be his indiscretions, had done so much for Spain, and for the whole civilized world; a man, who, in the honest language of an old writer, "had he lived in the days of ancient Greece or Rome, would have had statues raised, and temples and divine honors dedicated to him, as to a divinity!" [28]

None partook of the general indignation more strongly than Ferdinand and Isabella, who, in addition to their personal feelings of disgust at so gross an act, readily comprehended the whole weight of obloquy, which its perpetration must necessarily attach to them. They sent to Cadiz without an instant's delay, and commanded the admiral to be released from his ignominious fetters. They wrote to him in the most benignant terms, expressing their sincere regret for the unworthy usage which he had experienced, and requesting him to appear before them as speedily as possible, at Granada, where the court was then staying. At the same time, they furnished him a thousand ducats for his expenses, and a handsome retinue to escort him on his journey.

Columbus, revived by these a.s.surances of the kind dispositions of his sovereigns, proceeded without delay to Granada, which he reached on the 17th of December. Immediately on his arrival he obtained an audience. The queen could not repress her tears at the sight of the man, whose ill.u.s.trious services had met with such ungenerous requital, as it were, at her own hands. She endeavored to cheer his wounded spirit with the most earnest a.s.surances of her sympathy and sorrow for his misfortunes.

Columbus, from the first moment of his disgrace, had relied on the good faith and kindness of Isabella; for, as an ancient Castilian writer remarks, "she had ever favored him beyond the king her husband, protecting his interests, and showing him especial kindness and good-will." When he beheld the emotion of his royal mistress, and listened to her consolatory language, it was too much for his loyal and generous heart; and, throwing himself on his knees, he gave vent to his feelings, and sobbed aloud. The sovereigns endeavored to soothe and tranquillize his mind, and, after testifying their deep sense of his injuries, promised him, that impartial justice should be done his enemies, and that he should be reinstated in his emoluments and honors. [29]

Much censure has attached to the Spanish government for its share in this unfortunate transaction; both in the appointment of so unsuitable an agent as Bobadilla, and the delegation of such broad and indefinite powers. With regard to the first, it is now too late, as has already been remarked, to ascertain on what grounds such a selection could have been made. There is no evidence of his being indebted for his promotion to intrigue or any undue influence. Indeed, according to the testimony of one of his contemporaries, he was reputed "an extremely honest and religious man,"

and the good bishop Las Casas expressly declares that "no imputation of dishonesty or avarice had ever rested on his character." [30] It was an error of judgment; a grave one, indeed, and must pa.s.s for as much as it is worth.

But in regard to the second charge, of delegating unwarrantable powers, it should be remembered, that the grievances of the colony were represented as of a most pressing nature, demanding a prompt and peremptory remedy; that a more limited and partial authority, dependent for its exercise on instructions from the government at home, might be attended with ruinous delays; that this authority must necessarily be paramount to that of Columbus, who was a party implicated, and that, although unlimited jurisdiction was given over all offences committed against him, yet neither he nor his friends were to be molested in any other way than by temporary suspension from office, and a return to their own country, where the merits of their case might be submitted to the sovereigns themselves.

This view of the matter, indeed, is perfectly conformable to that of Ferdinand Columbus, whose solicitude, so apparent in every page, for his father's reputation, must have effectually counterbalanced any repugnance he may have felt at impugning the conduct of his sovereigns. "The only ground of complaint," he remarks, in summing up his narrative of the transaction, "which I can bring against their Catholic Highnesses is, the unfitness of the agent whom they employed, equally malicious and ignorant.

Had they sent out a suitable person, the admiral would have been highly gratified; since he had more than once requested the appointment of some one with full powers of jurisdiction in an affair, where he felt some natural delicacy in moving, in consequence of his own brother having been originally involved in it." And, as to the vast magnitude of the powers intrusted to Bobadilla, he adds," It can scarcely be wondered at, considering the manifold complaints against the admiral made to their Highnesses." [31]

Although the king and queen determined without hesitation on the complete restoration of the admiral's honors, they thought it better to defer his reappointment to the government of the colony, until the present disturbances should be settled, and he might return there with personal safety and advantage. In the mean time, they resolved to send out a competent individual, and to support him with such a force as should overawe faction, and enable him to place the tranquillity of the island on a permanent basis.

The person selected was Don Nicolas de Ovando, comendador of Lares, of the military order of Alcantara. He was a man of acknowledged prudence and sagacity, temperate in his habits, and plausible and politic in his address. It is sufficient evidence of his standing at court, that he had been one of the ten youths selected to be educated in the palace as companions for the prince of the Asturias. He was furnished with a fleet of two and thirty sail, carrying twenty-five hundred persons, many of them of the best families in the kingdom, with every variety of article for the nourishment and permanent prosperity of the colony; and the general equipment was in a style of expense and magnificence, such as had never before been lavished on any armada destined for the western waters. [32]

The new governor was instructed immediately on his arrival to send Bobadilla home for trial. Under his lax administration, abuses of every kind had multiplied to an alarming extent, and the poor natives, in particular, were rapidly wasting away under the new and most inhuman arrangement of the _repartimientos_, which he established. Isabella now declared the Indians free; and emphatically enjoined on the authorities of Hispaniola to respect them as true and faithful va.s.sals of the crown. Ovando was especially to ascertain the amount of losses sustained by Columbus and his brothers, to provide for their full indemnification, and to secure the unmolested enjoyment in future of all their lawful rights and pecuniary perquisites. [33]

Fortified with the most ample instructions in regard to these and other details of his administration, the governor embarked on board his magnificent flotilla, and crossed the bar of St. Lucar, February 15th, 1502. A furious tempest dispersed the fleet, before it had been out a week, and a report reached Spain that it had entirely perished. The sovereigns, overwhelmed with sorrow at this fresh disaster, which consigned so many of their best and bravest to a watery grave, shut themselves up in their palace for several days. Fortunately, the report proved ill-founded. The fleet rode out the storm in safety, one vessel only having perished, and the remainder reached in due time its place of destination. [34]

The Spanish government has been roundly taxed with injustice and ingrat.i.tude for its delay in restoring Columbus to the full possession of his colonial authority; and that too by writers generally distinguished for candor and impartiality. No such animadversion, however, as far as I am aware, is countenanced by contemporary historians; and it appears to be wholly undeserved. Independent of the obvious inexpediency of returning him immediately to the theatre of disaffection, before the embers of ancient animosity had had time to cool, there were several features in his character, which make it doubtful whether he were the most competent person, in any event, for an emergency demanding at once the greatest coolness, consummate address, and acknowledged personal authority. His sublime enthusiasm, which carried him victorious over every obstacle, involved him also in numerous embarra.s.sments, which men of more phlegmatic temperament would have escaped. It led him to count too readily on a similar spirit in others,--and to be disappointed. It gave an exaggerated coloring to his views and descriptions, that inevitably led to a reaction in the minds of such as embarked their all on the splendid dreams of a fairy land, which they were never to realize. [35] Hence a fruitful source of discontent and disaffection in his followers. It led him, in his eagerness for the achievement of his great enterprises, to be less scrupulous and politic as to the means, than a less ardent spirit would have been. His pertinacious adherence to the scheme of Indian slavery, and hhis impolitic regulation compelling the labor of the hidalgos, are pertinent examples of this. [36] He was, moreover, a foreigner, without rank, fortune, or powerful friends; and his high and sudden elevation naturally raised him up a thousand enemies among a proud, punctilious, and intensely national people. Under these multiplied embarra.s.sments, resulting from peculiarities of character and situation, the sovereigns might well be excused for not intrusting Columbus, at this delicate crisis, with disentangling the meshes of intrigue and faction, in which the affairs of the colony were so unhappily involved.

I trust these remarks will not be construed into an insensibility to the merits and exalted services of Columbus. "A world," to borrow the words, though not the application, of the Greek historian, "is his monument." His virtues s.h.i.+ne With too bright a l.u.s.tre to be dimmed by a few natural blemishes; but it becomes necessary to notice these, to vindicate the Spanish government from the imputation of perfidy and ingrat.i.tude, where it has been most freely urged, and apparently with the least foundation.

It is more difficult to excuse the paltry equipment with which the admiral was suffered to undertake his fourth and last voyage. The object proposed by this expedition was the discovery of a pa.s.sage to the great Indian Ocean, which, he inferred sagaciously enough from his premises, though, as it turned out, to the great inconvenience of the commercial world, most erroneously, must open somewhere between Cuba and the coast of Paria. Four caravels, only, were furnished for the expedition, the largest of which did not exceed seventy tons' burden; a force forming a striking contrast to the magnificent armada lately intrusted to Ovando, and altogether too insignificant to be vindicated on the ground of the different objects proposed by the two expeditions. [37]

Columbus, oppressed with growing infirmities, and a consciousness, perhaps, of the decline of popular favor, manifested unusual despondency previously to his embarkation. He talked even of resigning the task of further discovery to his brother Bartholomew. "I have established," said he, "all that I proposed,--the existence of land in the west. I have opened the gate, and others may enter at their pleasure; as indeed they do, arrogating to themselves the t.i.tle of discoverers, to which they can have little claim, following as they do in my track." He little thought the ingrat.i.tude of mankind would sanction the claims of these adventurers so far as to confer the name of one of them on that world, which his genius had revealed. [38]

The great inclination, however, which the admiral had to serve the Catholic sovereigns, and especially the most serene queen, says Ferdinand Columbus, induced him to lay aside his scruples, and encounter the perils and fatigues of another voyage. A few weeks before his departure, he received a gracious letter from Ferdinand and Isabella, the last ever addressed to him by his royal mistress, a.s.suring him of their purpose to maintain inviolate all their engagements with him, and to perpetuate the inheritance of his honors in his family. [39] Comforted and cheered by a.s.surances, the veteran navigator, quitting the port of Cadiz, on the 9th of March, 1502, once more spread his sails for those golden regions, which he had approached so near, but was destined never to reach.

It will not be necessary to pursue his course further than to notice a single occurrence of most extraordinary nature. The admiral had received instructions not to touch at Hispaniola on his outward voyage. The leaky condition of one of his s.h.i.+ps, however, and the signs of an approaching storm, induced him to seek a temporary refuge there; at the same time, he counselled Ovando to delay for a few days the departure of the fleet, then riding in the harbor, which was destined to carry Bobadilla and the rebels with their ill-gotten treasures back to Spain. The churlish governor, however, not only refused Columbus admittance, but gave orders for the instant departure of the vessels. The apprehensions of the experienced mariner were fully justified by the event. Scarcely had the Spanish fleet quitted its moorings, before one of those tremendous hurricanes came on, which so often desolate these tropical regions, sweeping down everything before it, and fell with such violence on the little navy, that out of eighteen s.h.i.+ps, of which it was composed, not more than three or four escaped. The rest all foundered, including those which contained Bobadilla, and the late enemies of Columbus. Two hundred thousand _castellanos_ of gold, half of which belonged to the government, went to the bottom with them. The only one of the fleet which made its way back to Spain was a crazy, weather-beaten bark, which contained the admiral's property, amounting to four thousand ounces of gold. To complete these curious coincidences, Columbus with his little squadron rode out the storm in safety under the lee of the island, where he had prudently taken shelter, on being so rudely repulsed from the port. This even-handed retribution of justice, so uncommon in human affairs, led many to discern the immediate interposition of Providence. Others, in a less Christian temper, referred it all to the necromancy of the admiral. [40]

FOOTNOTES

[1] "Inter has Italiae procellas magis indies ac magis alas protendit Hispania, imperium auget, gloriam nomenque suum ad Antipodes porriget."

Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 146.

[2] See, among others, a letter of Dr. Chanca, who accompanied Columbus on his second voyage. It is addressed to the authorities of Seville. After noticing the evidences of gold in Hispaniola, he says; "Ansi que de cierto los Reyes nuestros Senores desde agora se pueden tener por los mas prosperos e mas ricos Principes del mundo, porque tal cosa hasta agora no se ha visto ni leido de ningnno en el mundo, porque verdaderamente a otro camino que los navios vuelvan puedan llevar tanta cantidad de oro que se pueden maravillar cualesquiera que lo supieren." In another part of the letter, the Doctor is equally sanguine in regard to the fruitfulness of the soil and climate. Letra de Dr. Chanca, apud Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. i. pp. 198-224.

[3] Fernando Colon, Hist. de Almirante, cap. 60, 62.--Munoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 5, sec. 25.--Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib.

2, cap. 9.--Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., lib. 1, cap. 9.

[4] The Indians had some grounds for relying on the efficacy of starvation, if, as Las Casas gravely a.s.serts, "one Spaniard consumed in a single day as much as would suffice three families!" Llorente, Oeuvres de Don Barthelemi de las Casas, precedees de sa Vie, (Paris, 1822,) tom. i.

p. 11.

[5] Martyr, De Rebus Oceanicis, dec. 1, lib. 4.--Goinara, Hist. de las Indias, cap. 20, tom. ii.--Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 2, cap. 12.

[6] Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Doc. Dipl., no. 101.-- Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 64.--Munoz, Hist. del Nuevo- Mundo, lib. 5, sec. 31.

[7] Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 131.--Herrera expresses the same charitable opinion. "Muy claramente se conocio que el demonio estava, apoderado de aquella gente, y la traia ciega y enganada, hablandoles, y mostrandoles en diversas figuras." Indias Occidentales, lib. 3, cap. 4.

[8] Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 131.--Munoz, Hist. del Nuevo- Mundo, lib. 6, sec. 1.

[9] Columbus, in his letter to Prince John's nurse, dated 1500, makes the following ample acknowledgment of the queen's early protection of him. "En todos hobo incredulidad, y a la Reina mi Senora dio Nuestro Senor el espiritu de inteligencia y esfuerzo grande, y la hizo de todo heredera como a cara y muy amada hija." "Su Alteza lo aprobaba al contrario, y lo sostuvo fasta que pudo." Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. i. p. 266.

[10] See the letters to Columbus, dated May 14th, 1493, August, 1494, apud Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii. pp. 66, 154, et mult. al.

[11] The salaries alone, annually disbursed by the crown to persons resident in the colony, amounted to six million maravedies. Munoz, Hist.

del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 5, sec. 33.

[12] Idem, lib. 6, sec. 2.--Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 64.

--Herrera, Indias Occidentales, lib. 3, cap. 1.

[13] Such, for example, was the grant of an immense tract of land in Hispaniola, with the t.i.tle of count or duke, as the admiral might prefer.

Munoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 6, sec. 17.

[14] The instrument establis.h.i.+ng the _mayorazgo_, or perpetual entail of Columbus's estates, contains an injunction, that "his heirs shall never use any other signature than that of 'the Admiral, _el Almirante_, whatever other t.i.tles and honors may belong to them." That t.i.tle indicated his peculiar achievements, and it was an honest pride which led him by this simple expedient to perpetuate the remembrance of them in his posterity. See the original doc.u.ment, apud Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii. pp. 221-235.

[15] Munoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 6, sec. 20.--Fernando Colon, Hist.

del Almirante, cap. 64.--Zuniga, Annales de Sevilla, ano 1496.

[16] Peter Martyr, De Rebus Oceanicis, dec. 1, lib. e.--Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Doc. Dipl., nos. 116, 120.--Tercer Viage de Colon, apud Navarrete, tom. i. p. 245.--Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., lib. 1, cap. 10, ll.--Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 3, cap. 10, ll.-- Munoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 6, sec. 19.

[17] Gomara, Hist. de las Indias, cap. 20.--Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., lib. 1, cap. 10, ll.--Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 19, cap. 7.-- Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 73-82.--Peter Martyr, De Rebus Oceanicis, dec. 1, lib. 5.--Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 3, cap. 16.--Munoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 6, sec. 40-42.

[18] Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 19, cap. 7.--Peter Martyr, De Rebus Oceanicis, dec. 1, lib. 7.--Gomara, Hist. de las Indias, cap. 23.-- Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., cap. 11.

Ferdinand Columbus mentions that he and his brother, who were then pages to the queen, could not stir out into the courtyard of the Alhambra, without being followed by fifty of these vagabonds, who insulted them in the grossest manner, "as the sons of the adventurer, who had led so many brave Spanish hidalgos to seek their graves in the land of vanity and delusion which he had found out." Hist. del Almirante, cap. 85.

[19] Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., lib. 1, cap. 12.--National feeling operated, no doubt, as well as avarice to sharpen the tooth of slander against the admiral. "Aegre multi patiuntur," says Columbus's countryman, with honest warmth, "peregrinum hominem, et quidem e nostra Italia ortum, tantum honoris ac gloriae consequutum, ut non tantum Hispanicae gentis, sed et cujusvis alterius homines superaverit." Benzoni, lib. 1, cap. 5.

[20] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, lib. 4, cap. 7, 10, and more especially lib. 6, cap. 13.--Las Casas, Oeuvres, ed. de Llorente, tom. i. p. 306.

[21] "La qualite de Catholique Romain," says the philosophic Villers, "avait tout-a-fait remplace celle d'homme, et meme de Chretien. Qui n'etait pas Catholique Romain, n'etait pas homme, etait moins qu'homme; et eut-il ete un souverain, c'etait une bonne action que de lui oter la vie."

(Essai sur la Reformation, p. 56. ed. 1820.) Las Casas rests the t.i.tle of the Spanish crown to its American possessions on the original papal grant, made on condition of converting the natives to Christianity. The pope, as vicar of Jesns Christ, possesses plenary authority over all men for the safety of their souls. He might, therefore, in furtherance of this, confer on the Spanish sovereigns _imperial supremacy_ over all lands discovered by them,--not, however, to the prejudice of authorities already existing there, and over such nations only as voluntarily embraced Christianity.

Such is the sum of his thirty propositions, submitted to the council of the Indies for the inspection of Charles V. (Oeuvres, ed. De Llorente, tom. i. pp. 286-311.) One may see in these arbitrary and whimsical limitations, the good bishop's desire to reconcile what reason told him were the natural rights of man, with what faith prescribed as the legitimate prerogative of the pope. Few Roman Catholics at the present day will be found st.u.r.dy enough to maintain this lofty prerogative, however carefully limited. Still fewer in the sixteenth century would have challenged it. Indeed, it is but just to Las Casas, to admit, that the general scope of his arguments, here and elsewhere, is very far in advance of his age.

[22] A Spanish casuist founds the right of his nation to enslave the Indians, among other things, on their smoking tobacco, and not tr.i.m.m.i.n.g their beards _a l'Espagnole_. At least, this is Montesquieu's interpretation of it. (Esprit des Loix, lib. 15, chap. 3.) The doctors of the Inquisition could hardly have found a better reason.

[23] 23 Munoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 5, sec. 34.--Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Doc. Dipl., no. 92.--Herrera, Indias Occidentales, lib. 3, cap. 4.

[24] "Among other things that the holy fathers carried out," says Robles, "was a little organ and several bells, which greatly delighted the simple people, so that from one to two thousand persons were baptized every day."