II. 1504. these had brought upon him, Columbus ended BOOK his life at Valladolid on the twentieth of May one thousand five hundred and six, in the fiftyninth of his age. He died with a com- Death of year Columbus. posure of mind suitable to the magnanimity which distinguished his character, and with sentiments of piety becoming that supreme respect for religion, which he manifested in every occurrence of his life. z Life of Columbus, c. 108. c. 13, 14, 15. Herrera, dec. i. lib. vi. THE HISTORY OF AMERICA. WHILE BOOK III. III. 1504. State of paniola. HILE Columbus was employed in his B O O K last voyage, several events worthy of notice happened in Hispaniola. The colony there, the parent and nurse of all the sub- the colony sequent establishments of Spain in the New in HisWorld, gradually acquired the form of a regular and prosperous society. The humane solicitude of Isabella to protect the Indians from oppression, and particularly the proclamation by which the Spaniards were prohibited to compel them to work, retarded, it is true, for some time the progress of improvement. The natives, who considered exemption from toil as supreme felicity, scorned every allurement and reward by which they were invited BOOK number of hands either to work the mines or III. 1504. 1505. to cultivate the soil. Several of the first colonists, who had been accustomed to the service of the Indians, quitted the island, when deprived of those instruments, without which they knew not how to carry on any operation. Many of the new settlers who came over with Ovando, were seized with the distempers peculiar to the climate, and in a short space above a thousand of them died. At the same time, the exacting one half of the product of the mines as the royal share, was found to be a demand so exorbitant, that no adventurers would engage to work them upon such terms. In order to save the colony from ruin, Ovando ventured to relax the rigour of the royal edicts. He made a new distribution of the Indians among the Spaniards, and compelled them to labour, for a stated time, in digging the mines, or in cultivating the ground; but in order to screen himself from the imputation of having subjected them again to servitude, he enjoined their masters to pay them a certain sum, as the price of their work. He reduced the royal share of the gold found in the mines from the half to the third part, and soon after lowered it to a fifth, at which it long remained. Notwithstanding Isabella's tender concern for the good treatment of the Indians, and Ferdi III. nand's eagerness to improve the royal revenue, BOOK Ovando persuaded the court to approve of both these regulations. a BUT the Indians, after enjoying respite from oppression, though during a short interval, now felt the yoke of bondage to be so galling, that they made several attempts to vindicate their own liberty. This the Spaniards considered as rebellion, and took arms in order to reduce them to subjection. When war is carried on between nations whose state of improvement is in any degree similar, the means of defence bear some proportion to those employed in the attack; and in this equal contest such efforts must be made, such talents are displayed, and such passions roused, as exhibit mankind to view in a situation no less striking than interesting. It is one of the noblest functions of history, to observe and to delineate men at a juncture when their minds are most violently agitated, and all their powers and passions. are called forth. Hence the operations of war, and the struggles between contending states, have been deemed by historians, ancient as well as modern, a capital and important article in the annals of human actions. But in a contest between naked savages, and 1505. War with dians. the In |