SPAIN, 1500, 1501. A CORDIAL RECEPTION IN SPAIN-COLUMBUS FAVORABLY RECEIVED AT COURT--NEWINTEREST IN GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERY--HIS PLANS FORTHE REDEMPTION OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE-PREPARATIONS FOR A FOURTH EXPEDITION.

　　Columbus was right in insisting on wearing his chains. They becamerather an ornament than a disgrace. So soon as it was announced in Spainthat the great discoverer had been so treated by Bobadilla, a wave ofpopular indignation swept through the people and reached the court.

　　Ferdinand and Isabella, themselves, had never intended to give suchpowers to their favorite, that he should disgrace a man so much hissuperior.

　　They instantly sent orders to Cadiz that Columbus should be receivedwith all honor. So soon as he arrived he had been able to send, to DonaJuana de la Torre, a lady high in favor at court, a private letter, in which hemade a proud defense of himself. This letter is still preserved, and it is ofthe first interest, as showing his own character, and as showing what werethe real hardships which he had undergone.

　　The Lady Juana read this letter to Isabella. Her own indignation, whichprobably had been kindled by the general news that Columbus had beenchained, rose to the highest. She received him, therefore, when he arrivedat court, with all the more cordiality. Ferdinand was either obliged topretend to join with her in her indignation, or he had really felt distressedby the behavior of his subordinate.

　　They did not wait for any documents from Bobadilla. As has been said,they wrote cordially to Columbus; they also ordered that two thousandducats should be paid him for his expenses, and they bade him appear atGrenada at court. He did appear there on the seventeenth of December,attended by an honorable retinue, and in the proper costume of agentleman in favor with the king and queen.

　　When the queen met him she was moved to tears, and Columbus,finding himself so kindly received, threw himself upon his knees. For some time he could not express himself except by tears and sobs. Hissovereigns raised him from the ground and encouraged him by graciouswords. So soon as he recovered his self-possession he made such anaddress as he had occasion to make more than once in his life, and showedthe eloquence which is possible to a man of affairs. He could well boast ofhis loyalty to the Spanish crown; and he might well say that, whether hewere or were not experienced in government, he had been surrounded bysuch difficulties in administration as hardly any other man had had to gothrough. But really, it was hardly necessary that he should vindicatehimself.

　　The stupidity of his enemies, had injured their cause more than anycarelessness of Columbus could have done. The sovereigns expressed theirindignation at Bobadilla's proceedings, and, indeed, declared at once thathe should be dismissed from command. They never took any public noticeof the charges which he had sent home; on the other hand, they receivedColumbus with dignity and favor, and assured him that he should bereinstated in all his privileges.

　　The time at which he arrived was, in a certain sense, favorable for hisfuture plans, so far as he had formed any. On the other hand, the conditionof affairs was wholly changed from what it was when he began his greatdiscoveries, and the changes were in some degree unfavorable. Vasco daGama had succeeded in the great enterprise by which he had doubled theCape of Good Hope, had arrived at the Indies by the route of the Indianocean, and his squadron had successfully returned.

　　This great adventure, with the commercial and other results whichwould certainly follow it, had quickened the mind of all Europe, as thediscovery by Columbus had quickened it eight years before. So far, anyplan for the discoveries over which Columbus was always brooding,would be favorably received. But, on the other hand, in eight years sincethe first voyage, a large body of skillful adventurers had entered upon thecareer which then no one chose to share with him. The Pinzon brotherswere among these; Ojeda, already known to the reader, was another; andVespucci, as the reader knows, an intelligent and wise student, hadengaged himself in such discoveries.

　　The rumors of the voyages of the Cabots, much farther north thanthose made by Columbus, had gone through all Europe. In a word,Columbus was now only one of several skilful pilots and voyagers, and hisplans were to be considered side by side with those which were comingforward almost every day, for new discoveries, either by the eastern route,of which Vasco da Gama had shown the practicability, or by the westernroute, which Columbus himself had first essayed.

　　It is to be remembered, as well, that Columbus was now an old man,and, whatever were his successes as a discoverer, he had not succeeded asa commander. There might have been reasons for his failure; but failure isfailure, and men do not accord to an unsuccessful leader the honors whichthey are ready to give to a successful discoverer. When, therefore, heoffered his new plans at court, he should have been well aware that theycould not be received, as if he were the only one who could makesuggestions. Probably he was aware of this. He was also obliged, whetherhe would or would not, to give up the idea that he was to be thecommander of the regions which he discovered.

　　It had been easy enough to grant him this command before there wasso much as an inch of land known, over which it would make him themaster. But now that it was known that large islands, and probably a partof the continent of Asia, were to be submitted to his sway if he had it,there was every reason why the sovereigns should be unwilling tomaintain for him the broad rights which they had been willing to givewhen a scratch of the pen was all that was needful to give them.

　　Bobadilla was recalled; so far well. But neither Ferdinand nor Isabellachose to place Columbus again in his command. They did choose DonNicola Ovando, a younger man, to take the place of Bobadilla, to send himhome, and to take the charge of the colony.

　　From the colony itself, the worst accounts were received. If Columbusand his brother had failed, Bobadilla had failed more disgracefully. Indeed,he had begun by the policy of King Log, as an improvement on the policyof King Stork. He had favored all rebels, he had pardoned them, he hadeven paid them for the time which they had spent in rebellion; and thenatural result was utter disorder and license.

　　It does not appear that he was a bad man; he was a man wholly unusedto command; he was an imprudent man, and was weak. He hadcompromised the crown by the easy terms on which he had rented andsold estates; he had been obliged, in order to maintain the revenue, towork the natives with more severity than ever. He knew very well that thesystem, under which he was working could not last long. One of hismaxims was, "Do the best with your time," and he was constantlysacrificing future advantages for such present results as he could achieve.

　　The Indians, who had been treated badly enough before, were worsetreated now. And during his short administration, if it may be called anadministration,--during the time when he was nominally at the head ofaffairs--he was reducing the island to lower and lower depths. He didsucceed in obtaining a large product of gold, but the abuses of hisgovernment were not atoned for by such remittances. Worst of all, thewrongs of the natives touched the sensitiveness of Isabella, and she waseager that his successor should be appointed, and should sail, to put an endto these calamities.

　　The preparations which were made for Ovando's expedition, for therecall of Bobadilla, and for a reform, if it were possible, in theadministration of the colony, all set back any preparations for a newexpedition of discovery on the part of Columbus. He was not forgotten;his accounts were to be exami............