1 were reduced to extreme want; but they recei ved fuch feafonable fupplies of provifions from Europe, and found fo many resources in their own ingenuity and industry, that they suffered no great lofs of men. The wretched Indians were the victims of their own ill-concerted policy. A vaft multitude, fhup up among barren mountains, without any food but the fpontaneous productions of the earth, foon falt the utmoft diftreffes of famine. This brought on contagious difeafes; and, in the courfe of a few months, more than a third part of the inhabitants of the ifland perifhed, after experiencing mifery in all its various forms f). Intrigues againft Columbus in the court of Spain. But while Columbus was thus fuccefsfully establishing the foundations of the Spanifh grandour in the New World, his enemies laboured with unwearied affiduity to deprive him of the glory and rewards, which by his fervices and fufferings he was intitled to enjoy. The hardships unavoidable in a new fettlement, the calamities occafioned by an unhealthy climate, the difafters attending a voyage in unknown feas, were all reprefented as the fruits of his reftlefs and inconfiderate ambition. His prudent attention to preferve discipline and fubordination was f) Herrera, dec. I. lib. xi. c. 18. Life of Columbus, denominated excefs of rigour; the punishments which he inflicted upon the mutinous and diforderly were imputed to cruelty. Thefe accufations gained fuch credit in a jealous court, that a commiffioner was appointed to repair to Hifpaniola, and to infpect into the conduct of Columbus. By the recommendation of his enemies, Aguado, a groom of the bed-chamber, was the perfon to whom this important trust was committed. But in this choice they seem to have been more influenced by the obfequious attachment of the man to their intereft, than by his capacity for the ftation. Puffed up with fuch fudden elevation, Aguado difplayed, in the exercise of this office, all the frivolous felfimportance, and acted with all the difgufting infolence, which are natural to little minds, when raised to unexpected dignity, or employed in functions to which they are not equal. By liftening with eagerness to every accufation against Columbus, and encouraging not only the malcontent Spaniards, but even the Indians, to produce their grievances, real or imaginary, he fomented the spirit of diffention in the island, without establishing any regulation of public utility, or that tended to redrefs the many wrongs, with the odium of which he wifhed to load the admiral's administration. As Columbus felt fenfibly how humiliating his fituation must be, if he should remain in the country while fuch a partial inspector obferved his motions, and con trouled his jurifdiction, he took the refolution of returning to Spain, in order to lay a full account of all his tranfactions, particularly with refpect to the points in difpute between him and his adverfaries, before Ferdinand and Ifabella, from whofe juftice and difcernment he expected an equal and a favourable decifion. He committed the adminiftration of affairs, during his abfence, to Don Bartholomew, his brother, with the title of Adelantado, or Lieutenant-Governor. By a choice lefs fortunate, and which proved the fource of many calamities to the colony, he appointed Francis Roldan chief justice, with very extenfive powers g). Returns to Spain. (1496) In returning to Europe, Columbus held a courfe different from that which he had taken in his former voyage. He fteered almoft due eaft from Hifpaniola, in the parallel of twenty-two degrees of latitude; as experience had not yet discovered the more certain and expeditious method of ftretching to the north, in order to fall in with the fouthweft winds. By this ill-advifed choice, which, in the infancy of navigation between the New and Old Worlds, can hardly be imputed to the admiral as a defect in naval fkill, he was expofed to infinite fatigue and danger, in a perpetual ftruggle with the tradewinds, which blow without variation g) Herrera, dec. i. lib. ii. c. 18. Lib. iii. c. I. Notwith from the east between the tropics. ftanding the almoft infuperable difficulties of fuch a navigation, he perfifted in his courfe with his ufual patience and firmnefs, but made fo little way, that he was three months without feeing land. At length, his provifions began to fail, the crew was reduced to the scanty allowance of fix ounces of bread a day for each The admiral fared no better than the But, even in this extreme di perfon. meaneft failor. ftrefs, he retained the humanity which diftinguifhes his character, and refufed to comply with the earneft folicitations of his crew, fome of whom propofed to feed upon the Indian prifoners whom they were carrying over, and others infifted to throw them over-board, in order to leffen the confumption of their fmall flock. He reprefented, that they were human beings, reduced by a common calamity to the fame condition with themfelves, and intitled to share an equal fate. His authority and remonftrances diffipated thofe wild ideas fuggefted by defpair. Nor had they time to recur, as be came foon 2 within fight of the coaft of Spain, when all their fears and fufferings ended h). His reception there. Columbus appeared at court with the modeft but determined confidence of a man confcious not only of integrity, but of having perh) Herrera, dec. 1. lib. iii. c, 1, Life of Columbus, c. 64, formed great fervices. Ferdinand and Isabella, afhamed of their own facility in lending too favourable an ear to frivolous or ill-founded accufations, received him with fuch diftinguished marks of respect, as covered his enemies with fhame. Their cenfures and calumnies were no more heard of at that juncture. The gold, the pearls, the cotton, and other commodities of value which Columbus produced, feemed fully to refute what the malcontents had propagated with refpect to the poverty of the country. By reducing the Indians to obedience, and impofing a regular tax upon them, he had fecured to Spain a large acceffion of new fubjects, and the eftablishment of a revenue that promifed to be confiderable. By the mines which he had found out and examined, a fource of wealth ftill more copious was opened. Great and unexpected as thofe advantages were, Columbus reprefented them only as preludes to future acquifitions, and as the earnest of more important difcoveries, which he ftill meditated, and to which those he had already made would conduct him with eafe and certainty i). A plan formed for the more regular establishment of a colony. The attentive confideration of all these circumftances made fuch impreffion, not only upon Ifabella, who was flattered with the idea of i) Life of Columbus, c. 65. Herrera, decad. I. lib. iii. c. |