them. But intrigues were carrying on in the court of Spain at this juncture, in order to undermine his power and difcredit his operations, which constrained him to depart from his own fyftem of adminiftration. Several unfavourable accounts of his conduct, as well as of the countries difcovered by him, had been tranfmitted to Spain. Margaritta and Father Boyl were now at court; and in order to justify their own conduct, or to gratify their refentment, watched with malevolent attention for every opportunity of fpreading infinuations to his detriment. Many of the courtiers viewed his growing reputation and power with envious eyes. Fonfeca, archdeacon of Seville, who was intrufted with the chief direction of Indian affairs, had conceived fuch an unfavourable opinion of Columbus, for fome reason which the contemporary writers have not mentioned, that he liftened with partiality to every invective against him. It was not eafy for an unfriended ftranger, unpractifed in courtly arts, to counteract the machinations of fo many enemies. Co lumbus faw that there was but one method of fupporting his own credit, and of filencing all his adverfaries. He muft produce fuch a quantity of gold as would not only justify what he had reported with refpect to the richness of the country, but encourage Ferdinand and Ifabella to perfevere in profecuting his plans. The neceffity of obtaining it, forced him not only to impofe this heavy tax upon the Indians, but to exact payment of it with extreme rigour; and may be pleaded in excuse for his deviating on this occafion from the mildnefs and humanity with which he uniformly treated that unhappy people. The labour, attention, and forefight which the Indians were obliged to employ in procuring the tribute demanded of them, appeared the most intolerable of all evils, to men accustomed to pass their days in a carelefs, improvident indolence. They were incapable of fuch a regular and perfevering exertion of industry, and felt it fuch a grievous reftraint upon their liberty, that they had recourfe to an expedient for obtaining deliverance from this yoke, which demonftrates the excess of their impatience and defpair. They formed a scheme of ftarving those oppreffors whom they durft not attempt to expel; and from the opinion which they entertained with refpect to the voracious appetite of the Spaniards, they concluded the execution of it to be very practicable. With this view they fufpended all the opérations of agriculture; they fowed no maize, they pulled up the roots of the manioc or caffada which were planted, and retiring to the most inacceffible parts of the mountains, left the uncultivated plains to their enemies. This defpe sate refolution produced in fome degree the effects which they expected. The Spaniards were reduced to extreme want; but they received fuch feasonable feafonable fupplies of provifions from Europe, and found fo many refources in their own ingenuity and induftry, that they fuffered no great lofs of men. The wretched Indians were the victims of their own illconcerted policy. A great multitude of people, fhut up in the mountainous part of the country, without any food but the fpontaneous productions of the earth, foon felt 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 island perished, after experiencing mifery in all its various forms. But while Columbus was establishing the foundations of the Spanish grandeur in the New World, his enemics 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 effects of his reftlefs and inconfiderate ambition. His prudent attention to preferve difcipline and fubordination was denominated excefs. of rigour; the punishments which he inflicted upon the mutinous and dif orderly were imputed to cruelty. Thefe accufations gained fuch credit in a jealous court, that a commisioner was appointed to repair to Hif paniola, 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 truft was committed. But in this choice they feem 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 clevation, Aguado difplayed, in the exercife of this office, all the frivolous felf-importance, 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 againft 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 redress the many wrongs, with the odium of which he wished to load the admiral's adminiftration. As Columbus felt fenfibly how humiliating his fituation must be, if he fhould remain in that country while fuch a partial infpector obferved his motions, and controuled 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 dif cernment fcernment he expected an equal and a favourable decifion. He committed the administration of affairs, during his abfence, in one thousand four hundred and ninety-fix, 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 juftice, with very extenfive powers, In returning to Europe, Columbus held a courfe different from that which he had taken in his former voyage. He fteered almost due east from Hifpaniola, in the parallel of twenty-two degrees of latitude; as experience had not yet difcovered the more certain and expeditious method of ftretching to the north, in order to fall in with the fouth-west 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 skill, he was exposed to infinite fatigue and danger, in a perpetual ftruggle with the trade-winds, which blow without variation from the east between the tropics. Notwithstanding the almoft infuperable difficulties of fuch a navigation, he persisted 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 fcanty allowance of fix ounces of bread a-day for each perfon. The admiral fared no better than the meaneft failor. But, even in this extreme diftrefs, he retained the humanity which diftinguishes his character, and refufed to comply with the earnest 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 ftock. He reprefented that they were human beings, reduced by a common calamity to the fame condition with themselves, 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 they came foon within fight of the coaft of Spain, when all their fears and fufferings ended. Columbus appeared at court with the modeft but determined confi dence of a man confcious not only of integrity, but of having performed great fervices. Ferdinand and Ifabella, afhamed of their own facility in lending too favourable an ear to frivolous or ill-founded accufations, received him with fuch diftinguifhed marks of refpect, 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 mal-contents had propagated with refpect to the poverty of the country. By reducing the Indians to obedience, and impofing a, regalar tax upon them, he had fecured to Spain a large acceffion of new fubjects, and the establishment of a revenue that promised 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 still meditated, and to which thofe he had already made would conduct him with eafe and certainty. The attentive confideration of all thefe circumftances made fuch impreffion, not only upon Ifabella, who was flattered with the idea of being the patronefs of all Columbus's enterprifes, but even upon, Ferdinand, who having originally expreffed his difapprobation of his schemes, was ftill apt to doubt of their fuccefs, that they refolved to supply the colony in Hifpaniola with every thing which could render it a perma nent establishment, and to furnish Columbus with fuch a fleet, that he might proceed to fearch for thofe new countries, of whofe exiftence he feemed to be confident. The meafures moft proper for accomplishing both thefe defigns were concerted with Columbus. Difcovery had been the fole object of the firft voyage to the New World; and though, in the fecond, fettlement had been propofed, the precautions taken for that purpofe had either been infufficient, or were rendered ineffectual by the mutinous fpirit of the Spaniards, and the unforeseen calamities arifing from various caufes. Now a plan was to be formed of a regular colony, that might ferve as a model to all future eflablishments. Every particular was confidered with attention, and the whole arranged with a fcrupulous accuracy. The precife number of adventurers who fhould be permitted to embark was fixed. They were to be of different ranks and profeffions; and the proportion of each was eftablished, according to their usefulness and the wants of the colony. A fuitable number of women was to be chofen to accompany thefe new fettlers. As it was the first object to raife provifions in a country where fcarcity of food had been the occafion of fo much diftrefs, a confiderable body of hufbandmen was to be carried over. As the Spaniards had then no conception of deriving any benefit from thofe productions of the New World which have fince yielded fuch large returns of wealth to Europe, but had formed magnificent ideas, and entertained fanguine hopes with respect to the riches contained in the mines which had been discovered, a band of workmen, killed in the various arts employed in digging and refining the precious metals, was provided. All these emigrants were to receive pay and fubfiftence for fome years, at the public expence. Thus Thus far the regulations were prudent, and well adapted to the end in view. But as it was forefeen that few would engage voluntarily to fettle in a country, whofe noxious climate had been fatal to so many of their countrymen, Columbus propofed to tranfport to Hifpaniola fuch malefactors as had been convicted of crimes, which, though capital, were of a lefs atrocious nature; and that for the future a certain proportion of the offenders ufually fent to the gallies, should be condemned to labour in the mines which were to be opened. This advice, given without due reflection, was as inconfiderately adopted. The prifons of Spain were drained, in order to collect members for the intended colony; and the judges empowered to try criminals, were instructed to recroit it by their future fentences. It is not, however, with fuch materials, that the foundations of a fociety, deftined to be permanent, fhould be laid. Induftry, fobriety, patience, and mutual confidence are indifpenfably requifite in an infant fettlement, where purity of morals muft contribute more towards establishing order, than the operation or authority of laws. But when fuch a mixture of what is corrupt is admitted into the original conftitution of the political body, the vices of thofe unfound and incurable members will probably infect the whole, and must certainly be productive of violent and unhappy effects. This the Spaniards fatally experienced; and the other European nations having fucceflively imitated the practice of Spain in this particular, pernicious confequences have followed in their fettlements, which can be imputed to no other caufe. Though Columbus obtained, with great facility and dispatch, the royal approbation of every meafare and regulation that he propofed, his endeavours to carry them into execution were so long retarded, as must have tired out the patience of any man, lefs accustomed to encounter and to furmount difficulties. Thofe delays were occafioned partly by that tedious formality and fpirit of procrastination, with which the SpaDiards conduct businefs; and partly by the exhausted state of the treasury, which was drained by the expence of celebrating the marriage of Ferdinand and Ifabella's only fon with Margaret of Auftria, and that of Joanna, their fecond daughter, with Philip archduke of Auftria; but must be chiefly imputed to the malicious arts of Columbus's enemies. Aftonished at the reception which he met with upon his return, and overawed by his prefence, they gave way, for fome time, to a tide of favour too ftrong for them to oppofe. Their enmity, however, was too inveterate to remain long inactive. They refumed their operations, and by the affiftance of Fonfeca, the minister for Indian affairs, who was pow promoted to the bishopric of Bajados, they threw in fo many ob ftacles |