injuftice of the nation, to which he had been fuch an eminent benefac tor, as well as against the ingratitude of the princes whofe reign he had rendered illuftrious. Athamed of their own conduct, and eager not only to make fome reparation for this injury, but to efface the flain which it might fix upon their character, they inftantly iffued orders to fet Columbus at liberty, on December the feventeenth, invited him to court, and remitted money to enable him to appear there in a manner suitable to his rank. When he entered the royal prefence, Columbus threw himself at the feet of his fovereigns. He remained for fome time filent; the various paffions which agitated his mind fuppreffing his power of utterance. At length he recovered himfelf, and vindicated his conduct in a long discourse, producing the most satisfying proofs of his own integrity as well as good intention, and evidence, no lefs clear, of the malevolence of his enemies, who, not fatisfied with having ruined his fortune, laboured to deprive him of what alone was now left, his honour and his fame. Ferdinand received him with decent civility, and Ifabella with tenderness and refpect. They both expreffed their forrow for what had happened, difavowed their knowledge of it, and joined in promifing him protection and future favour. But though they inftantly degraded Bovadilla, in order to remove from themselves any fufpicion of having authorised his violent proceedings, they did not restore to Columbus his jurifdiction and privileges as viceroy of those countries which he had difcovered. Though willing to appear the avengers of Columbus's wrongs, that illiberal jealoufy which prompted them to inveft Bovadilla with fuch authority as put it in his power to treat the admiral with indignity still fubfifted. They were afraid to trust a man to whom they had been fo highly indebted, and retaining him at court under various pretexts, they appointed Nicholas de Ovando, a knight of the military order of Alcantara, governor of Hifpaniola.

Columbus was deeply affected with this new injury, which came from hands that seemed to be employed in making reparation for his past fufferings. The fenfibility with which great minds feel every thing that implies any fufpicion of their integrity, or that wears the aspect of an affront, is exquifite. Columbus had experienced both from the Spaniards; and their ungenerous conduct exasperated him to such a degree, that he could no longer conceal the fentiments which it excited. Whereever he went, he carried about with him, as a memorial of their ingratitude, thofe fetters with which he had been loaded. They were conftantly hung up in his chamber, and he gave orders that when he died they fhould be buried in his grave.

Meanwhile, in the year one thoufand five hundred and one, the fpirit of discovery, notwithstanding the fevere check which it received by the ungenerous treatment of the man, who first excited it in Spain, continued active and vigorous. Roderigo de Baftidas, a perfon of diftinction, fitted out two fhips, in January, in co-partnery with John de la Cofa, who having ferved under the admiral in two of his voyages, was deemed the moft skilful pilot in Spain. They fteered directly towards the continent, arrived on the coast of Paria, and proceeding to the weft, difcovered all the coaft of the province now known by the name of Tierra Firmè, from Cape de Vela to the gulf of Darien. Not long after Ojeda, with his former affociate Amerigo Vefpucci, fet out upon a fecond voyage, and being unacquainted with the deftination of Bastidas, held the fame courfe, and touched at the fame places. The voyage of Baftidas was profperous and lucrative, that of Ojeda unfortunate. But both tended to increafe the ardour of difcovery; for in proportion as the Spaniards acquired a more extenfive knowledge of the American continent, their idea of its opulence and fertility increased.

Before thefe adventurers returned from their voyages, a fleet was equipped, at the public expence, for carrying over Ovando, the new governor to Hifpaniola. His prefence there was extremely requifite, in order to ftop the inconfiderate career of Bovadilla, whofe imprudent adminiftration threatened the fettlement with ruin. Confcious of the violence and iniquity of his proceedings against Columbus, he continued to make it his fole object to gain the favour and fupport of his countrymen, by accommodating himself to their paffions and prejudices. With this view, he established regulations, in every point the reverse of those which Columbus deemed effential to the prosperity of the colony. Inftead of the fevere difcipline, neceffary in order to habituate the diffolute and corrupted members of which the fociety was composed to the restraints of law and fubordination, he suffered them to enjoy fuch uncontrouled licence, as encouraged the wildeft exceffes. Inftead of protecting the Indians, he gave a legal fanction to the oppreffion of that unhappy people. He took the exact number of fuch as furvived their paft calamities, divided them into diftinct claffes, diftributed them in property among his adherents, and reduced all the people of the island to a ftate of complete fervitude. As the avarice of the Spaniards was too rapacious and impatient to try any method of acquiring wealth but that of fearching for gold, this fervitude became as grievous as it was unjuft. The Indians were driven in crowds to the mountains, and compelled to work in the mines by mafters, who impofed their tasks without mercy or difcretion. Labour, fo difproportioned

3

tioned to their strength and former habits of life, wafted that feeble race of men with fuch rapid confumption, as must have foon terminated in the utter extinction of the ancient inhabitants of the country.

The neceffity of applying a speedy remedy to thofe diforders, haftened Ovando's departure. He had the command of the moft refpectable armament hitherto fitted out for the New World. It confifted of thirtytwo ships, on board of which two thoufand five hundred persons embarked, with an intention of fettling in the country. Upon the arrival of the new governor with this powerful reinforcement to the colony, in the year one thoufand five hundred and two, Bovadilla refigned his charge, and was commanded to return inftantly to Spain, in order to anfwer for his conduct. Roldan, and the other ringleaders of the mutineers, who had been moft active in oppofing Columbus, were required to leave the island at the fame time. A proclamation was issued, declaring the natives to be free fubjects of Spain, of whom no fervice was to be exacted contrary to their own inclination, and without paying them an adequate price for their labour. With respect to the Spaniards themselves, various regulations were made, tending to suppress the licentious spirit which had been so fatal to the colony, and to establish that reverence for law and order on which fociety is founded, and to which it is indebted for its increase and ftability. In order to limit the exorbitant gain which private perfons were fuppofed to make by working the mines, an ordinance was published, directing all the gold to be brought to a public smelting-house, and declaring one half of it to be the property of the crown.

While these steps were taking for fecuring the tranquillity and welfare of the colony which Columbus had planted, he himself was engaged in the unpleafant employment of foliciting the favour of an ungrateful court, and, notwithstanding all his merits and fervices, he folicited in vain. He demanded, in terms of the original capitulation in one thoufand four hundred and ninety-two, to be reinftated in his office of viceroy over the countries which he had discovered. By a strange fatality, the circumftance which he urged in fupport of his claim, determined a jealous monarch to reject it. The greatness of his discoveries, and the profpect of their increafing value, made Ferdinand confider the conceffiors in the capitulation as extravagant and impolitic. He was afraid of entrusting a subject with the exercise of a jurisdiction that now appeared to be fo truly extenfive, and might grow no lefs formidable. He infpired Ifabella with the fame fufpicions; and under various pretexts, equally frivolous and unjuft, they eluded all Columbus's requifitions to perform that which a folemn compact bound them to accomplish. After

attending

attending the court of Spain for near two years, as an humble fuitor, he found it impoffible to remove Ferdinand's prejudices and apprehenfions; and perceived, at length, that he laboured in vain, when he urged a claim of juftice or merit with an interefted and unfeeling prince.

But even this ungenerous return did not discourage him from pursuing the great object which firft called forth his inventive genius, and excited him to attempt difcovery. To open a new paffage to the East Indies was his original and favourite fcheme. This ftill engroffed his thoughts; and either from his own obfervations in his voyage to Paria, or from fome obfcure hint of the natives, or from the accounts given by Baftidas and de la Cofa, of their expedition, he conceived an opinion that, beyond the continent of America, there was a fea which extended to the East Indies, and hoped to find some narrow ftrait or narrow neck of land, by which a communication might be opened with it and the part of the ocean already known. By a very fortunate conjecture, he fuppofed this ftrait or ifthmus to be fituated near the gulf of Darien. Full of this idea, though he was now of an advanced age, worn out with fatigue, and broken with infirmities, he offered, with the alacrity of a youthful adventurer, to undertake a voyage which would ascertain this important point, and perfect the grand fcheme which from the beginning he propofed to acomplish. Several circumftances concurred in difpofing Ferdinand and Ifabella to lend a favourable ear to this propofal. They were glad to have the pretext of any honourable employment for removing from court a man with whose demands they deemed it impolitic to comply, and whofe fervices it was indecent to neglect. Though unwilling to reward Columbus, they were not infenfible of his merit, and from their experience of his skill and conduct, had reafon to give credit to his conjectures, and to confide in his fuccefs. To thefe confiderations, a third must be added of still more powerful influence. About this time the Portuguese flect, under Cabral, arrived from the Indies; and, by the richness of its cargo, gave the people of Europe a more perfect idea, than they had hitherto been able to form, of the opulence and fertility of the eaft. The Portuguese had been more fortunate in their difcoveries than the Spaniards. They had opened a communication with countries where induftry, arts, and elegance flourished; and where commerce had been longer eftablished, and carried to greater extent, than in any region of the earth. Their firft voyages thither yielded immediate, as well as vaft returns of profit, in commodities extremely precious and in great request. Lifbon became immediately the feat of commerce and of wealth; while Spain had only the expectation of remote benefit, and of future gain, from the western world. No

thing, then, could be more acceptable to the Spaniards than Columbus's offer to conduct them to the east, by a route which he expected to be fhorter, as well as lefs dangerous, than that which the Portuguese had taken. Even Ferdinand was roufed by fuch a profpect, and warmly approved of the undertaking.

But, interefting as the object of his voyage was to the nation, Columbus could procure only four fmall barks, the largeft of which did not exceed feventy tons in burden, for performing it. Accustomed to brave danger, and to engage in arduous undertakings with inadequate force, he did not hesitate to accept the command of this pitiful fquadron. His brother Bartholomew, and his fecond fon Ferdinand, the historian of his actions, accompanied him. He failed from Cadiz on the ninth of May, and touched, as ufual, at the Canary Islands; from thence he purposed to have stood directly for the continent; but his largest veffel was fo clumfy and unfit for fervice, as conftrained him to bear away for Hifpaniola, in hopes of exchanging her for fome fhip of the fleet that had carried out Ovando. When he arrived off St. Do-mingo, on June the twenty-ninth, he found eighteen of these ships ready loaded, and on the point of departing for Spain. Columbus immediately acquainted the governor with the deftination of his voyage, and the accident which had obliged him to alter his route. He requested permiffion to enter the harbour, not only that he might negociate the exchange of his fhip, but that he might take fhelter during a violent hurricane, of which he difcerned the approach from various prognoftics, which his experience and fagacity had taught him to obferve. On that account, he advised him likewife to put off for fome days the departure of the fleet bound for Spain. But Ovando refufed his request, and defpifed his counsel. Under circumftances in which humanity would have afforded refuge to a ftranger, Columbus was denied admittance into a country of which he had difcovered the exifience and acquired the poffeffion. His falutary warning, which merited the greatest attention, was regarded as the dream of a vifionary prophet, who arrogantly pretended to predict an event beyond the reach of human fore£ght. The fleet fet fail for Spain. Next night the hurricane came on with dreadful impetuofity. Columbus, aware of the danger, took precautions against it, and faved his little fquadron. The fleet deftined for Spain met with the fate which the rashness and obstinacy of its commanders deferved. Of eighteen fhips two or three only escaped. this general wreck perifhed Bovadilla, Roldan, and the greater part of thofe who had been the most active in perfecuting Columbus, and oppreffing the Indians. Together with themfelves, all the wealth which

In

they