signature than simply "The Admiral." As he had felt aggrieved by the royal licence for general discovery, granted in 1495, it was annulled as far as it might be prejudicial to his interests, or to the previous grants made him by the crown. The titles and prerogatives of Adelantado were likewise conferred upon Don Bartholomew, though the king had at first been displeased with Columbus for investing his brother with dignities which were only in the gift of the sovereign.

While all these measures were taken for the immediate gratification of Columbus, others were adopted for the good of the colony. The precise number of persons was fixed who were to be sent to Hispaniola, among whom were several females; and regulations were made for their payment and support, and for the distribution of lands among them to be diligently cultivated. The greatest care was enjoined likewise by Isabella in the religious instruction of the natives, and the utmost lenity in collecting the tributes imposed upon them. With respect to the government of the colony, also, it was generally recommended that, whenever the public safety did not require stern measures, there should be manifested a disposition to indulgent and easy rule.

When every intention was thus shown on the part of the crown to despatch the expedition, unexpected difficulties arose on the part of the public. The charm was dispelled which, in the preceding voyage, had made every adventurer crowd into the service of Columbus; the new found world, instead of a region of wealth and enjoyment, was now considered a land of poverty and disaster. To supply

the want of voluntary recruits, therefore, Columbus proposed to transport to Hispaniola, for a limited term of years, all criminals condemned to banishment or the galleys, excepting such as had committed crimes of an atrocious nature. This pernicious measure shows the desperate alternative to which he was reduced by the reaction of public sentiment. It proved a fruitful source of misery and disaster to the colony; and having frequently been adopted by various nations, whose superior experience should have taught them better, has proved the bane of many a rising settlement.

Notwithstanding all these expedients, and the urgent representations of Columbus, of the sufferings to which the colony must be reduced for want of supplies, it was not until the beginning of 1498 that the two ships were despatched to Hispaniola, under the command of Pedro Fernandez Coronal. A still further delay occurred in fitting out the six ships that were to bear Columbus on his voyage of discovery. His cold-blooded enemy Fonseca, who was now bishop of Badajoz, having the superintendence of Indian affairs, was enabled to impede and retard all his plans. The various officers and agents employed in the concerns of the armament were most of them dependents and minions of the bishop, and sought to gratify him, by throwing all kinds of difficulties in the way of Columbus, treating him with that arrogance which petty and ignoble men in place are prone to exercise, when they think they can do so with impunity. So wearied and disheartened did he become by these delays, and by the prejudices of the fickle public, that he at one

time thought of abandoning his discoveries altogether.

The insolence of these worthless men harassed him to the last moment of his sojourn in Spain, and followed him to the water's edge. One of the most noisy and presuming was one Ximeno de Breviesca, treasurer of Fonseca, a converted Jew or Moor, and a man of impudent front and unbridled tongue, who, echoing the sentiment of his patron the bishop, had been loud in his abuse of the admiral and his enterprises.

At the very time that Columbus was on the point of embarking, he was assailed by the insolence of this Ximeno. Forgetting, in the hurry and indignation of the moment, his usual self-command, he struck the despicable minion to the earth, and spurned him with his foot, venting in this unguarded paroxysm the accumulated griefs and vexations which had long rankled in his heart. This transport of passion, so unusual in his well-governed temper, was artfully made use of by Fonseca, and others of his enemies, to injure him in the royal favour. The personal castigation of a public officer was represented as a flagrant instance of his vindictive temper, and a corroboration of the charges of cruelty and oppression sent home from the colony; and we are assured that certain humiliating measures, shortly afterwards adopted towards him, were in consequence of the effect produced upon the sovereigns by these misrepresentations. Columbus himself deeply regretted his indiscretion, and foresaw the invidious use that would be made of it. It would be difficult to make, with equal brevity, a more

direct and affecting appeal than that contained in one of his letters, wherein he alludes to this affair. He entreats the sovereigns not to let it be wrested to his injury in their opinion; but to remember, when any thing should be said to his disparagement, that he was "absent, envied, and a stranger."

CHAPTER XXIX.

Discovery of Trinidad and the Coast of Paria-Arrival at San Domingo. [1498.]

On the 30th of May, 1498, Columbus set sail from the port of San Lucar de Barrameda, with a squadron of six vessels, on his third voyage of discovery. From various considerations, he was induced to take a different route from that pursued in his former expeditions. He had been assured by persons who had traded to the east, that the rarest objects of commerce, such as gold, precious stones, drugs, and spices, were chiefly to be found in the regions about the equator, where the inhabitants were black or darkly coloured; and that, until he arrived among people of such complexions, it was not probable he would find those articles in great abundance.

Columbus expected to find such people more to the south and south-east. He recollected that the natives of Hispaniola had spoken of black men who had once come to their island from the south, the heads of whose javelins were of guanin, or adulterated gold. The natives of the Caribbee islands, also, had informed him that a great tract of the main land lay to the south; and in his preceding voyage he had remarked that Cuba, which he supposed to be the continent of Asia, swept off in that direction.