colony, under the command of his brother. But the ungovernable spirit of the people under his command deprived Columbus of the glory of planting the first colony on the continent of America. Their insolence and rapacity provoked the natives to take arms against them. This repulse was followed by a series of other disasters. One of his ships perished; he was obliged to abandon another; and with the two that remained he again bore away for Hispaniola: but it was with the utmost difficulty they reached Jamaica, where he was obliged to run them aground to prevent them from sinking. The measure of his calamities seemed now to be full: his ships were ruined beyond the possibility of repair, and, of course, he had no means of making his situation known to his countrymen at Hispaniola. At length he obtained two canoes from the natives, and Mendez a Spaniard, and Fieschi a Genoese, offered to set out for that island, upon a voyage of above thirty leagues. This they accomplished in ten days, after surmounting incredible dangers, and enduring such fatigue, that several of the Indians who accompanied them sunk under it and died. Eight months did these gallant men spend in seeking assistance from the Spanish commander in vain. The situation of Columbus was now the most alarming his men mutinied, and threatened him, as the cause of their misfortunes, with death: the natives brought them in provisions with reluctance, and menaced to withdraw those supplies altogether. Such a resolution must have been quickly fatal to the Spaniards. Their safety depended upon the good-will of the Indians; and unless they could revive the admiration and reverence with which that simple people had at first beheld them, destruction was unavoidable. Co.

lumbus, by a happy artifice, not only restored but heightened the high opinion which the Indians had originally entertained of them. By his skill in astronomy he knew there was shortly to be a total eclipse of the moon. He assembled all the principal people of the district around him on the day before it happened; and, after reproaching them for their fickleness in withdrawing their affection and assistance from men whom they had lately revered, he told them that the Spaniards were servants of the Great Spirit who dwells in heaven, who made and governs the world; that he, offended at their refusing to support persons who were the objects of his peculiar care, was preparing to punish this crime with exemplary severity, and that very night the moon should withhold her light, and appear of a bloody hue, as a sign of divine wrath and of the vengeance ready to fall on them. To this prediction some had listened with carelessness; others with credulous astonishment. But when the moon began gradually to be darkened, and at length appeared of a red colour, all were struck with terror. They ran with consternation to their houses, and, returning instantly to Columbus, loaded with provisions, threw them at his feet, conjuring him to intercede with the Great Spirit to avert the destruction with which they were threatened. Columbus promised to comply with their desire ; the eclipse went off, the moon recovered its splendour; and from that day the Spaniards were not only furnished profusely with provisions, but the natives with superstitious attention avoided every thing that could give them offence.

During these transactions the mutineers had made many fruitless attempts to pass over to His

ner.

paniola in the canoes which they had seized. At length they appeared in open rebellion against their commander. His brother marched against them, killed some, and took their captain prisoThe rest submitted, and bound themselves by the most solemn oaths to obey all the commands of Columbus. Hardly was tranquillity reestablished when ships appeared from Hispaniola to convey them thither, after having been exposed to all kinds of misery for more than a year.

Soon after his arrival he made prepaA. D. rations to sail for Europe. Disasters si1504. milar to those which had accompanied him through life, continued to pursue him to the end of his career. At length, however, he reached with difficulty the port of St. Lucar, in Andalusia. There he received the account of the death of Isabella, in whose justice, humanity, and regard, he confided as his last resource. None now remained to redress his wrongs, or to reward his services. To Ferdinand he applied for remuneration; but from him he obtained nought but fair words and unmeaning promises. Disgusted with the ingratitude of a monarch whom he had served with fidelity and success, exhausted with the fatigues and hardships which he had endured, and broken with the infirmities which these had

brought upon him, Columbus ended his A. D. life on the 20th of May, in the fifty-ninth 1506. year of his age. He died with a composure of mind suitable to the magnanimity which had ever distinguished his character, and with sentiments of piety becoming that supreme respect for religion which he manifested in every occurrence of his life.

CHAP. II.

State of the Colony in Hispaniola. Policy of the Court of Spain. Attempts made by the Indians to regain their Liberty. Cruelty of the Spaniards. Ovando's wise Conduct. Cuba found to be an island. Don Diego Columbus lays claim to and obtains his Rights. Attempts to colonize America. The Reception which the Spaniards met with. Settle on the Gulf of Darien. Conquest of Cuba. Conduct and cruel Death of Hatuey. Discovery of Florida. Of the South Sea. Great Expectations formed of it. Noble Conduct and shameful Death of Balboa. Missionaries sent out. Their

Zeal. Dominicans and Franciscans take different Sides. Conduct of Las Casas. Negroes imported. Origin of the African Slave Trade. Las Casas's Idea of a new Colony. Attempted. Unsuccessful. Discoveries towards the West. Yucatan. Reception given to the Spaniards there. Campeachy. Preparations for invading New Spain.

W

HILE Columbus was employed in his last voyage, the colony in Hispaniola gradually acquired the form of a regular and prosperous society. Isabella had prohibited the Spaniards from compelling the Indians to work against their will. This retarded for a time the progress of improvement. The Spaniards had not a sufficient number of hands either to work the mines or 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 instru

ments, without which they knew not how to carry on any operation. Many of the new settlers who came over with Ovando, Columbus's successor, shortly died of distempers peculiar to the climate. 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. 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.

A. D. 1505.

The Indians felt the yoke of bondage to be so galling, that they made many attempts to vindicate their liberty. This the Spaniards considered as rebellion, and took arms in order to reduce them to subjection. They considered them not as men fighting in defence of their rights, but as slaves who had revolted against their masters.

Their

caziques, when taken, were condemned, like the leaders of banditti, to the most cruel and ignominious punishments. Overawed and humbled by the atrocious treatment of their princes and nobles, who were objects of their highest reverence, the people in all the provinces of Hispaniola submitted, without further resistance, to the Spanish yoke. Upon the death of Isabella, all the regulations tending to mitigate the rigour of their servi tude were forgotten. Ovando, without any re