In regard to that much-lauded act of Isabella's in lending her assistance to Columbus when Ferdinand would not, there is this to be said. First, no special praise is due her for assisting the Genoese; and secondly, she never assisted him in the manner or to the extent represented. Santángel and the Pinzons were the real supporters of that first voyage. Isabella did not pawn her jewels; she did not sell her wardrobe, or empty her purse. But if she had, for what would it have been? It makes a pleasing story for children to call her patronage by pretty names, to say that it was out of pity for the poor sailor, that it was an act of personal sacrifice for the public good, that it was for charity's sake, or from benevolence, for the extension of knowledge or the vindication of some great principle—only it is a very stupid child that does not know better. Clearly enough the object was great returns from a small expenditure; great returns in gold, lands, honors, and proselytings—a species of commercial and political gambling more in accordance with the character as commonly sketched of the "cold and crafty Ferdinand," whose measureless avarice and insatiable greed not less than his subtle state-craft and kingly cunning would have prompted him to secure so great a prize at so small a cost, than with the character of an unselfish, heavenly-minded woman. And were it not for the danger of being regarded by the tender-minded as ungallant, I might allude to the haggling which attended the bargain, and tell how the queen at first refused to pay the sailor his price, and let him go, then called him back and gave him what he first had asked, more like a Jew than like even the grasping Ferdinand. In conclusion, I feel it almost unnecessary to say that Columbus, Isabella, and all those bright examples of history whose conduct and influence in the main were on the side of humanity, justice, the useful, and the good, have my most profound admiration, my most intelligent respect. All their faults I freely forgive, and praise them for what they were, as among the noblest, the best, the most beneficial to their race—though not always so, nor always intending it—of any who have come and gone before us. And I can hate Bobadilla, Roldan, and others of their sort, all historical embodiments of injustice, egotism, treachery, and beastly cruelty, with a godly hatred; but I hope never to be so blinded by the brightness of my subject as to be unable to see the truth, and seeing it, fairly to report it. CHAPTER V. ADMINISTRATION OF THE INDIES. 1492-1526.