To live in misery by
withholding their pay, and using many other scandalous expressions; and if
the king went out they all flocked round him, calling pay! pay!
My brother and I were then at Granada as pages to the queen; and when we
chanced to pass by these people they would cry out in a hideous manner,
making the sign of the cross, "There go the sons of the admiral of the
Morescoes; he that has found out false and deceitful countries to be the
ruin and burial place of the Spanish gentry." Adding many more such
insolencies, which made us very cautious of appearing before them. By
continual complaints and constantly importuning the favourites at court,
it was at length determined to send a judge to Hispaniola to inquire into
all these affairs; who was authorized, if he found the admiral guilty of
what had been laid to his charge, to send him home to Spain and to remain
himself as governor of the colony. The person chosen for this purpose was
Francis de Bovadilla, a poor knight of the order of Calatrava, who besides
his full and ample commission was supplied with blank directed letters
subscribed by their majesties, which he was empowered to direct to such
persons as he might think fit in Hispaniola, commanding them to be aiding
and assisting to him in the discharge of his commission.
Thus furnished with ample powers, Bovadilla arrived at St Domingo in the
latter end of August 1500, at which time the admiral happened to be at the
Conception settling the affairs of that province, in which his brother had
been assaulted by the rebels, and where the Indians were more numerous and
of quicker capacity and more enlarged understandings than in any other
part of the island.
Finding no person at his arrival who could in any way keep him in awe,
Bovadilla immediately took possession of the admirals palace, and
appropriated every thing he found there to his own use as if it had fallen
to him by inheritance. He gathered together all whom he could find who had
been in rebellion, and many others who hated the admiral and his brothers,
and immediately declared himself governor of the colony; and to secure the
affections of the people, he proclaimed a general freedom for twenty years.
He then summoned the admiral to appear before him without delay, as
necessary for their majesties service; and to justify this measure he sent
on the seventh of September the royal letter, of which the following is
the substance, by F. John de la Sera, to the admiral.
"To D. Christopher Columbus, our Admiral of the Ocean."
"We have ordered the commander Francis de Bovadilla, the bearer, to
aquaint you with certain things from us; wherefore we command you to give
him entire credit, and to obey him."
"Given at Madrid, the twenty-first of May 1500.
