BOOK which he uniformly treated that unhappy II. people. e 1495. Fatal ef THE labour, attention, and foresight, which that mea- the Indians were obliged to employ in pro fects of sure. curing the tribute demanded of them, appeared the most intolerable of all evils, to men accustomed to pass their days in a careless, improvident indolence. They were incapable of such a regular and persevering exertion of industry, and felt it such a grievous restraint upon their liberty, that they had recourse to an expedient for obtaining deliverance from this yoke, which demonstrates the excess of their impatience and despair. They formed a scheme of starving those oppressors whom they durst not attempt to expel; and from the opinion which they entertained with respect to the voracious appetite of the Spaniards, they concluded the execution of it to be very practicable. With this view they suspended all the operations of agriculture; they sowed no maize, they pulled up the roots of the manioc or cassada which were planted, and retiring to the most inaccessible parts of the mountains, left the uncultivated plains to their enemies. This desperate resolution • Herrera, dec. 1. lib. ii. c. 17. II. 1495. produced in some degree the effects which BOOK they expected. The Spaniards were reduced to extreme want; but they received such seasonable supplies of provisions from Europe, and found so many resources in their own ingenuity and industry, that they suffered no great loss of men. The wretched Indians were the victims of their own ill-concerted policy. A great multitude of people, shut up in the mountainous or wooded part of the country, without any food but the spontaneous productions of the earth, soon felt the utmost distresses of famine. This brought on contagious diseases; and, in the course of a few months, more than a third part of the inhabitants of the island perished, after experiencing misery in all its various forms.f in the BUT while Columbus was establishing the Intrigues against foundations of the Spanish grandeur in the Columbus New World, his enemies laboured with un- court of wearied assiduity to deprive him of the glory Spain. and rewards, which by his services and sufferings he was entitled to enjoy. The hardships unavoidable in a new settlement, the calamities occasioned by an unhealthy climate, the f Herrera, dec. 1. lib. xi. c. 18. Life of Columbus, c. 61. Oviedo, lib. iii. p. 93. D. Benzon Hist. Novi Orbis, lib. i. c. 9. P. Martyr, dec. p. 48. BOOK disasters attending a voyage in unknown seas, II. 1495. were all represented as the effects of his restless and inconsiderate ambition. His prudent attention to preserve discipline and subordin ation was denominated excess of rigour; the punishments which he inflicted upon the mutinous and disorderly were imputed to cruelty. These accusations gained such credit in a jealous court, that a commissioner was appointed to repair to Hispaniola, and to inspect into the conduct of Columbus. By the recommendation of his enemies, Aguado, a groom of the bed-chamber, was the person to whom this important trust was committed. But in this choice they seem to have been more influenced by the obsequious attachment of the man to their interest, than by his capacity for the station. Puffed up with such sudden elevation, Aguado displayed, in the exercise of this office, all the frivolous self-importance, and acted with all the disgusting insolence, which are natural to little minds, when raised to unexpected dignity, or employed in functions to which they are not equal. By listening with eagerness to every accusation 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 dissension in the island, without establishing any regulations of public ' II. 1495. utility, or that tended to redress the many BOOK wrongs, with the odium of which he wished to load the admiral's administration. As Columbus felt sensibly how humiliating his situation must be, if he should remain in the country while such a partial inspector observed his motions, and controlled his jurisdiction, he took the resolution of returning to Spain, in order to lay a full account of all his transactions, particularly with respect to the points in dispute between him and his adversaries, before Ferdinand and Isabella, from whose justice and discernment he expected an equal and a favourable decision. He committed the administration of affairs, during his absence, to Don Bartholomew his brother, with the title of Adelantado, or Lieutenant-Governor. By a choice less fortunate, and which proved the source of many calamities to the colony, he appointed Francis Roldan chief justice, with very extensive powers. 1496. Spain. IN returning to Europe, Columbus held a Returns to course different from that which he had taken in his former voyage. He steered almost due east from Hispaniola, in the parallel of twentytwo degrees of latitude; as experience had not yet discovered the more certain and ex BOOK peditious method of stretching to the north, in order to fall in with the south-west winds. II. 1496. By this ill-advised choice, which, in the in- But, |