Christopher Columbus and the New World of His Discovery — Volume 6Young, Filson
History
Christopher Columbus and the New World of His Discovery — Volume 6
Young, Filson
America -- Discovery and exploration; Columbus, Christopher, 1451-1506
To the most impartial eyes it began to appear as though Columbus were
either an impostor or a fool. There is no evidence that Ferdinand and
Isabella thought that he was an impostor or that he had wilfully deceived
them; but there is some evidence that they began to have an inkling as to
what kind of a man he really was, and as to his unfitness for governing a
colony. Once more something had to be done. The sending out of a
commissioner had not been a great success before, but in the difficulties
of the situation it seemed the only thing. Still there was a good deal
of hesitation, and it is probable that Isabella was not yet fully
convinced of the necessity for this grave step. This hesitation was
brought to an end by the arrival from Espanola of the ships bearing the
followers of Roldan, who had been sent back under the terms of Columbus's
feeble capitulation. The same ships brought a great quantity of slaves,
which the colonists were able to show had been brought by the permission
of the Admiral; they carried native girls also, many of them pregnant,
many with new-born babies; and these also came with the permission of the
Admiral. The ships further carried the Admiral's letter complaining of
the conspiracy of Roldan and containing the unfortunate request for a
further licence to extend the slave trade. These circumstances were
probably enough to turn the scale of Isabella's opinion against the
Admiral's administration. The presence of the slaves particularly
angered her kind womanly heart. "What right has he to give away my
vassals?" she exclaimed, and ordered that they should all be sent back,
and that in addition all the other slaves who had come home should be
traced and sent back; although of course it was impossible to carry out
this last order.
At any rate there was no longer any hesitation about sending out a
commissioner, and the Sovereigns chose one Francisco de Bobadilla, an
official of the royal household, for the performance of this difficult
mission. As far as we can decipher him he was a very ordinary official
personage; prejudiced, it is possible, against an administration that had
produced such disastrous results and which offended his orderly official
susceptibilities; otherwise to be regarded as a man exactly honest in the
performance of what he conceived to be his duties, and entirely
indisposed to allow sentiment or any other extraneous matter to interfere
with such due performance. We shall have need to remember, when we see
him at work in Espanola, that he was not sent out to judge between
Columbus and his Sovereigns or between Columbus and the world, but to
investigate the condition of the colony and to take what action he
thought necessary. The commission which he bore to the Admiral was in
the following terms:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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