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CHAPTER VI.

DON DIEGO COLUMBUS.-THE DOMINICANS.

THE LAWS OF BURGOS.

N the midft of the crash of Dynasties, the downfal of Kingdoms, and the wild havoc in great cities which prevails in these unquiet times,* any study of what was done a long while ago, which itself may not be dramatic, or at least, not of the fame liveliness as the present proceedings in the world, and which derives most of its importance from the largeness of the refult and not from the impofing presence of the means, seems somewhat tame and profitless. And, indeed, in all stirring periods, those engaged in the ordinary affairs of life, ftill more students, whether readers or writers, feel as if they had, somehow, been left behind; or as a man fitting in a gloomy room confined by ill health or dull business, while at intervals comes in the merry noise of boisterous children playing in the fun.

* A. D. 1848.

But these feelings and fancies are fallacious. Often, the importance of a thing lies altogether in the principle upon which it is done. The mere phyfical fate of empires, monarchies and popedoms, much less of mere fwarms of thoughtless people, may not be equal in depth and fignificance to one man's one fin; nor, on the other hand, is a great example of duty performed, though of a fimple character, (as we shall find in this coming chapter of the doings of fome poor monks) to be postponed in confideration to the most loud-founding battle-fields and ever so much frivolous flaughter. You see a fimilar thing in fiction: an old Greek drama which fhall have but one mind brought before you greatly tortured by conflicting paffions and duties, presents some picture of the universe to you, throws a fudden light down into the abyffes of human mifery and madness, and rivets your attention immeasurably more than an ill-told, feebly-following tragedy in which the deaths are as numerous as the perplexed spectator can defire.

Still lefs is the benefit which may be derived from the study of history to be measured by the noise and pageant of the thing; but by the examples it affords and the formation of character it gives rife to. Men have not outgrown the aid which history might afford them: duty-political

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1509.

duty-ftill requires to be expounded and inculcated; greatness is not yet fully understood; and to revert to the image used above, the man who would come down from his dull chamber and play well with those children in the fun, had better have somewhat made up his mind in quiet of what it is well to play at, and what should be the rules of the game.

So let us be content, in the midst of all this tumult, to go on quietly and get the most we can out of a story which will fhow us what the vain doctrines and defires of men, their cruelty, their piety and their charity, all mingling together, make of the new materials which a fo-called "New World" affords them.

The new Governor Don Diego Columbus and Don Die- his wife Maria de Toledo arrived at St. Domingo

go arrives

at St. Do- in July 1509. The island had not before been mingo. graced by a Spanish lady of her rank; and the arrival of the new Authorities was honoured by a large affemblage of the Colonists and grand feftivities of various kinds. Behind all this scenic representation of greatness, there was, as often happens, but little real power. The Governor did not poffefs the King's confidence (it is a question whether any Viceroy would have had that) which was chiefly bestowed upon the Treasurer Passa

monte.

There was a correfpondence carried on between the King and this officer in cypher, which did not bode Don Diego much good, for Paffamonte was a steady enemy of his. And Paffamonte was only one out of many enemies to the new Governor both in Hifpaniola and in Spain.

refidencia.

Before, however, we begin with the new Governor, let us fee what became of Ovando. A refidencia was held, as ufual, upon the late Governor and the two Alcaldes Mayores, which went off well and left no ftain upon them. There was no residencia in this life, as Las Cafas remarks, about Ovando's the matter of the Indians; and with regard to the Spaniards, if you could separate their welfare from that of the Indians, it has always been acknowledged that Ovando managed them (the Spaniards) with much vigour and discretion. Indeed, there must have been fomething good about Ovando. Las Cafas, a good judge of character, (a faculty by the way not in the leaft incompatible with vivacity of nature like his) was evidently attached to Ovando. Would to God, he fays, that the final judgment (not man's refidencia) may have been favourable to him: for " in truth "I loved him, with the exception of those errors " into which he fell through moral blindness.”

There is a story of Ovando from which we may, perhaps, infer that he was not deficient in

good-nature to thofe about him. Some official perfon had been extravagant and was ruined. Ovando liked the man, and attending at the sale of his effects, contrived to raise the prices so that all the debts were fatisfied, every one striving by exceffive biddings to please the Governor. Not a very high-minded or correct proceeding this; but still there is a good nature in it we might not have expected from so stern a man. He got home fafely to Spain, and was well received by Ferdinand, but died a short time after his arrival. He is faid to have written fome account of his Government which has not yet reached pofterity; but, amongst the treasures which lie hid in Spanish libraries, it may ftill be found, and will probably throw light upon these times. It would be curious to see what he fays of fome of the doings at Xaragua and elsewhere. Peace be with him. Happily he was to be judged by one who underftood him infinitely better than he could his fellow-men, the Indians.

We turn now to the doings of Don Diego Columbus. The king's inftructions to this Governor had been given partly in writing and partly verbally; and, as regards the Indians, were to

*Herrera, dec. 1, lib. 7, cap. 8.

Navarrete, Coleccion, vol. 2, p. 327.

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