Castile might now boast, the first time for eight centuries, that every outward stain, at least, of infidelity, was purified from her bosom. But how had this been accomplished? By the most detestable expedients which sophistry could devise, and oppression execute; and that, too, under an enlightened government, proposing to be guided solely by a conscientious regard for duty. To comprehend this more fully, it will be necessary to take a brief view of public sentiment in matters of religion at that time.

It is a singular paradox, that Christianity, whose doctrines inculcate unbounded charity, should have been made so often an engine of persecution; while Mahometanism, whose principles are those of avowed intolerance, should have exhibited, at least till later times, a truly philosophical spirit of toleration. [34] Even the first victorious disciples of the prophet, glowing with all the fiery zeal of proselytism, were content with the exaction of tribute from the vanquished; at least, more vindictive feelings were reserved only for idolaters, who did not, like the Jews and Christians, acknowledge with themselves the unity of God. With these latter denominations they had obvious sympathy, since it was their creed which formed the basis of their own. [35] In Spain, where the fiery temperament of the Arab was gradually softened under the influence of a temperate climate and higher mental culture, the toleration of the Jews and Christians, as we have already had occasion to notice, was so remarkable, that, within a few years after the conquest, we find them not only protected in the enjoyment of civil and religious freedom, but mingling on terms almost of equality with their conquerors.

It is not necessary to inquire here, how far the different policy of the Christians was owing to the peculiar constitution of their hierarchy, which, composed of a spiritual militia drawn from every country in Europe, was cut off by its position from all human sympathies, and attached to no interests but its own; which availed itself of the superior science and reputed sanctity, that were supposed to have given it the key to the dread mysteries of a future life, not to enlighten but to enslave the minds of a credulous world; and which, making its own tenets the only standard of faith, its own rites and ceremonial the only evidence of virtue, obliterated the great laws of morality, written by the divine hand on every heart, and gradually built up a system of exclusiveness and intolerance most repugnant to the mild and charitable religion of Jesus Christ.

Before the close of the fifteenth century, several circumstances operated to sharpen the edge of intolerance, especially against the Arabs. The Turks, whose political consideration of late years had made them the peculiar representatives and champions of Mahometanism, had shown a ferocity and cruelty in their treatment of the Christians, which brought general odium on all the professors of their faith, and on the Moors, of course, though most undeservedly, in common with the rest. The bold, heterodox doctrines, also, which had occasionally broken forth in different parts of Europe in the fifteenth century, like so many faint streaks of light ushering in the glorious morn of the Reformation, had roused the alarm of the champions of the church, and kindled on more than one occasion the fires of persecution; and, before the close of the period, the Inquisition was introduced into Spain.

From that disastrous hour, religion wore a new aspect in this unhappy country. The spirit of intolerance, no longer hooded in the darkness of the cloister, now stalked abroad in all his terrors. Zeal was exalted into fanaticism, and a rational spirit of proselytism, into one of fiendish persecution. It was not enough now, as formerly, to conform passively to the doctrines of the church, but it was enjoined to make war on all who refused them. The natural feelings of compunction in the discharge of this sad duty was a crime; and the tear of sympathy, wrung out by the sight of mortal agonies, was an offence to be expiated by humiliating penance. The most frightful maxims were deliberately engrafted into the code of morals. Any one, it was said, might conscientiously kill an apostate wherever he could meet him. There was some doubt whether a man might slay his own father, if a heretic or infidel, but none whatever as to his right, in that event, to take away the life of his son or of his brother. [36] These maxims were not a dead letter, but of most active operation, as the sad records of the dread tribunal too well prove. The character of the nation underwent a melancholy change. The milk of charity, nay of human feeling, was soured in every bosom. The liberality of the old Spanish cavalier gave way to the fiery fanaticism of the monk. The taste for blood, once gratified, begat a cannibal appetite in the people, who, cheered on by the frantic clergy, seemed to vie with one another in the eagerness with which they ran down the miserable game of the Inquisition.

It was at this very time, when the infernal monster, gorged but not sated with human sacrifice, was crying aloud for fresh victims, that Granada surrendered to the Spaniards, under the solemn guaranty of the full enjoyment of civil and religious liberty. The treaty of capitulation granted too much, or too little,—too little for an independent state, too much for one whose existence was now merged in that of a greater; for it secured to the Moors privileges in some respects superior to those of the Castilians, and to the prejudice of the latter. Such, for example, was the permission to trade with the Barbary coast, and with the various places in Castile and Andalusia, without paying the duties imposed on the Spaniards themselves; [37] and that article, again, by which runaway Moorish slaves from other parts of the kingdom were made free and incapable of being reclaimed by their masters, if they could reach Granada. [38] The former of these provisions struck at the commercial profits of the Spaniards, the latter directly at their property.

It is not too much to say, that such a treaty, depending for its observance on the good faith and forbearance of the stronger party, would not hold together a year in any country of Christendom, even at the present day, before some flaw or pretext would be devised to evade it. How much greater was the probability of this in the present case, where the weaker party was viewed with all the accumulated odium of long hereditary hostility and religious rancor!

The work of conversion, on which the Christians, no doubt, much relied, was attended with greater difficulties than had been anticipated by the conquerors. It was now found, that, while the Moors retained their present faith, they would be much better affected towards their countrymen in Africa, than to the nation with which they were incorporated. In short, Spain still had enemies in her bosom; and reports were rife in every quarter, of their secret intelligence with the Barbary states, and of Christians kidnapped to be sold as slaves to Algerine corsairs. Such tales, greedily circulated and swallowed, soon begat general alarm; and men are not apt to be over-scrupulous as to measures which they deem essential to their personal safety.

The zealous attempt to bring about conversion by preaching and expostulation was fair and commendable. The intervention of bribes and promises, if it violated the spirit, did not, at least, the letter of the treaty. The application of force to a few of the most refractory, who by their blind obstinacy were excluding a whole nation from the benefits of redemption, was to be defended on other grounds; and these were not wanting to cunning theologians, who considered that the sanctity of the end justified extraordinary means, and that, where the eternal interests of the soul were at stake, the force of promises and the faith of treaties were equally nugatory. [39]

But the chef-d'oeuvre of monkish casuistry was the argument imputed to Ximenes for depriving the Moors of the benefits of the treaty, as a legitimate consequence of the rebellion, into which they had been driven by his own malpractices. This proposition, however, far from outraging the feelings of the nation, well drilled by this time in the metaphysics of the cloister, fell short of them, if we are to judge from recommendations of a still more questionable import, urged, though ineffectually, on the sovereigns at this very time, from the highest quarter. [40]

Such are the frightful results to which the fairest mind may be led, when it introduces the refinements of logic into the discussions of duty; when, proposing to achieve some great good, whether in politics or religion, it conceives that the importance of the object authorizes a departure from the plain principles of morality, which regulate the ordinary affairs of life; and when, blending these higher interests with those of a personal nature, it becomes incapable of discriminating between them, and is led insensibly to act from selfish motives, while it fondly imagines itself obeying only the conscientious dictates of duty. [41]

With these events may be said to terminate the history of the Moors, or the Moriscoes, as henceforth called, under the present reign. Eight centuries had elapsed since their first occupation of the country; during which period they had exhibited all the various phases of civilization, from its dawn to its decline. Ten years had sufficed to overturn the splendid remains of this powerful empire; and ten more, for its nominal conversion to Christianity. A long century of persecution, of unmitigated and unmerited suffering, was to follow, before the whole was to be consummated by the expulsion of this unhappy race from the Peninsula. Their story, in this latter period, furnishes one of the most memorable examples in history, of the impotence of persecution, even in support of a good cause against a bad one. It is a lesson that cannot be too deeply pondered through every succeeding age. The fires of the Inquisition are, indeed, extinguished, probably to be lighted no more. But where is the land which can boast that the spirit of intolerance, which forms the very breath of persecution, is altogether extinct in its bosom?

FOOTNOTES

[1] Alpuxarras,—an Arabic word, signifying "land of warriors," according to Salazar de Mendoza. (Monarquia, tom. ii. p. 138.)

According to the more accurate and learned Conde, it is derived from an Arabic term for "pasturage." (El Nubiense, Descripcion de Espana, p. 187.)

"La Alpuxarra, aquessa sierra que al Sol la cervis lavanta y que poblada de Villas, es Mar de penas, y plantas, adonde sus poblaciones ondas navegan de plata."

Calderon, (Comedias, (Madrid, 1760,) tom. i. p. 353,) whose gorgeous muse sheds a blaze of glory over the rudest scenes.

[2] Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, tom. i. lib. 1, cap. 28.—Quintana, Espanoles Celebres, tom. i. p. 239.—Bleda, Coronica, lib. 5, cap. 23.— Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 159.—Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. fol. 338.—Mendoza, Guerra de Granada, p. 12.

[3] If we are to believe Martyr, the royal force amounted to 80,000 foot and 15,000 horse; so large an army, so promptly brought into the field, would suggest high ideas of the resources of the nation; too high indeed to gain credit, even from Martyr, without confirmation.

[4] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 215.—Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. fol. 338.—Zurita, Anales, tom. v. lib. 3, cap. 45.—Carbajal, Anales, MS., ano 1500.

[5] Footnote: Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 28.—Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. fol. 338.—Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 159.—Bleda, Coronica, lib. 5, cap. 24.

[6] Bleda, Coronica, lib. 5, cap. 24.—Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 165.

[7] Privilegios a los Moros de Valdelecrin y las Alpuxarras que se convirtieren, a 30 de Julio de 1500. Archive de Simancas, apud Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. apend. 14.

[8] Carbajal, Anales, MS., ano 1500.—Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 19, cap. 10.

[9] Footnote: Carbajal, Anales, MS., ano 1501.—Zurita, Anales, tom. v. lib. 4, cap. 27, 31.

[10] The great marquis of Cadiz was third count of Arcos, from which his descendants took their title on the resumption of Cadiz by the crown after his death. Mendoza, Dignidades, lib. 3, cap. 8, 17.

[11] See two letters dated Seville, January and February, 1500, addressed by Ferdinand and Isabella to the inhabitants of the Serrania de Ronda, preserved in the archives of Simancas, apud Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 15.

[12] Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 165.—Bleda, Coronica, lib. 5, cap. 25.—Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 221.

The complaints of the Spanish and African Moors to the Sultan of Egypt, or of Babylon, as he was then usually styled, had drawn from that prince sharp remonstrances to the Catholic sovereigns against their persecutions of the Moslems, accompanied by menaces of strict retaliation on the Christians in his dominions. In order to avert such calamitous consequences, Peter Martyr was sent as ambassador to Egypt. He left Granada in August, 1501, proceeded to Venice, and embarked there for Alexandria, which place he reached in December. Though cautioned on his arrival, that his mission, in the present exasperated state of feeling at the court, might cost him his head, the dauntless envoy sailed up the Nile under a Mameluke guard to Grand Cairo. Far from experiencing any outrage, however, he was courteously received by the Sultan; although the ambassador declined compromising the dignity of the court he represented, by paying the usual humiliating mark of obeisance, in prostrating himself on the ground in the royal presence; an independent bearing highly satisfactory to the Castilian historians. (See Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 19, cap. 12.) He had three audiences, in which he succeeded so completely in effacing the unfavorable impressions of the Moslem prince, that the latter not only dismissed him with liberal presents, but granted, at his request, several important privileges to the Christian residents, and the pilgrims to the Holy Land, which lay within his dominions. Martyr's account of this interesting visit, which gave him ample opportunity for studying the manners of a nation, and seeing the stupendous monuments of ancient art, then little familiar to Europeans, was published in Latin, under the title of "De Legatione Babylonica," in three books, appended to his more celebrated "Decades de Rebus Oceanicis et Novo Orbe." Mazzuchelli, (Sorittori d'ltalia, race Anghiera,) notices an edition which he had seen published separately, without date or name of the printer.

[13] "Rio Verde, Rio Verde, Tinto va en sangre viva;"—

Percy, in his well-known version of one of these agreeable romances, adopts the tame epithet of "gentle river," from the awkwardness, he says, of the literal translation of "verdant river." He was not aware, it appears, that the Spanish was a proper name. (See Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, (London, 1812,) vol. i. p. 357.) The more faithful version of "green river," however, would have nothing very unpoetical in it; though our gifted countryman, Bryant seems to intimate, by his omission, somewhat of a similar difficulty, in his agreeable stanzas on the beautiful stream of that name in New England.

[14] Zuniga, Annales de Sevilla, ano 1501.—Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. p. 340.—Bleda, Coronica, lib. 5, cap. 26.—Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 165.

"Fue muy gentil capitan," says Oviedo, speaking of this latter nobleman, "y valiente lanza; y rauchas vezes dio testimonio grande de su animoso esfuerzo." Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 36.

[15] Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. fol. 340.—Zurita, Anales, tom. v. lib. 4, cap. 33.—Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 19, cap. 10.— Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 165.—Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 28.

[16] Mendoza, Guerra de Granada, p. 13.—Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. 2, fol. 340.—Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 28.—Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 36.

The boy, who lived to man's estate, was afterwards created marquis of Priego by the Catholic sovereigns. Salazar de Mendoza, Dignidades, lib. 2, cap. 13.

[17] It is the simile of the fine old ballad:

"Solo queda Don Alonso Su campana es acabada Pelea como un Leon Pero poco aprovechaba."

[18] Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., ubi supra.—Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. ubi supra.—Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 19, cap. 10.— Mendoza, Guerra de Granada, p. 13.—Sandoval, Hist. Del Emp. Carlos V., tom. i. p. 5.

According to Hyta's prose, Aguilar had first despatched more than thirty Moors with his own hand. (Guerras de Granada, part. i. p. 568.) The ballad, with more discretion, does not vouch for any particular number.

"Don Alonso en este tiempo Muy gran batalla hacia, El cavallo le havian muerto, Por muralla le tenia. Y arrimado a un gran penon Con valor se defendia:

Muchos Moros tiene muertos, Pero poco le valia. Porque sobre el cargan muchos, Y le dan grandes heridas, Tantas que cayo alli muerto Entre la gente enemiga."

The warrior's death is summed up with an artless brevity, that would be affectation in more studied composition.

"Muerto queda Don Alonso, Y eterna fama ganada."

[19] Paolo Giovio finds an etymology for the name in the eagle (aguila), assumed as the device of the warlike ancestors of Don Alonso. St. Ferdinand of Castile, in consideration of the services of this illustrious house at the taking of Cordova, in 1236, allowed it to bear as a cognomen the name of that city. This branch, however, still continued to be distinguished by their territorial epithet of Aguilar, although Don Alonso's brother, the Great Captain, as we have seen, was more generally known by that of Cordova. Vita Magni Gonsalvi, fol. 204.

[20] Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. fol 340, 341.

The hero's body, left on the field of battle, was treated with decent respect by the Moors, who restored it to King Ferdinand; and the sovereigns caused it to be interred with all suitable pomp in the church of St. Hypolito at Cordova. Many years afterwards the marchioness of Priego, his descendant, had the tomb opened; and, on examining the mouldering remains, the iron head of a lance, received in his last mortal struggle, was found buried in the bones. Bleda, Coronica, lib. 5, cap. 26.

[21] "Tambien el Conde de Urena, Mal herido en demasia, Se sale de la batalla Llevado por una guia. "Que sabia bien la senda Que de la Sierra salia: Muchos Moros dexaba muertos Por su grande valentia. "Tambien algunos se escapan, Que al buen Conde le seguian."

Oviedo, speaking of this retreat of the good count and his followers, says, "Volvieron las riendas a sus caballos, y se retiraron a mas que galope por la multitud de los Infieles." Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 36.

[22] Zuniga, Annales de Sevilla, ano 1501.—Carbajal, Anales, MS., ano 1501.—Bleda, Coronica, lib. 5, cap. 26.—Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 36.

For a more particular notice of Ramirez, see Part I. Chapter 13, of this History.

[23] Bleda, Coronica, lib. 5, cap. 26, 27.—Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 16.—Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 165.—Mariana, Hist. de Espana, lib. 27, cap. 5.—Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 28.

[24] Coronica, lib. 5, cap. 27.

The Curate of Los Palacios disposes of the Moors rather summarily; "The Christians stripped them, gave them a free passage, and sent them to the devil!" Reyes Catolicos, cap. 165.

[25] According to one of the romances, cited by Hyta, the expedition of Aguilar was a piece of romantic Quixotism, occasioned by King Ferdinand's challenging the bravest of his knights to plant his banner on the summits of the Alpuxarras.

"Qual de vosotros, amigos, Ira a la Sierra manana, A poner mi Real pendon Encima de la Alpuxarra?"

All shrunk from the perilous emprise, till Alonso de Aguilar stepped forward and boldly assumed it for himself.

"A todos tiembla la barba, Sino fuera don Alonso, Que de Aguilar se llamaba. Levantose en pie ante el Rey De esta manera le habla.

"Aquesa empresa, Senor, Para mi estaba guardada, Que mi senora la reyna Ya me la tiene mandada.

"Alegrose mucho el Rey Por la oferta que le daba, Au no era amanecido Don Alonso ya cavalga."

These popular ditties, it cannot be denied, are slippery authorities for any important fact, unless supported by more direct historic testimony. When composed, however, by contemporaries, or those who lived near the time, they may very naturally record many true details, too insignificant in their consequences to attract the notice of history. The ballad translated with so much elaborate simplicity by Percy, is chiefly taken up, as the English reader may remember, with the exploits of a Sevillian hero named Saavedra. No such personage is noticed, as far as I am aware, by the Spanish chroniclers. The name of Saavedra, however, appears to have been a familiar one in Seville, and occurs two or three times in the muster-roll of nobles and cavaliers of that city, who joined King Ferdinand's army in the preceding year, 1500. Zuniga, Annales de Sevilla, eodem anno.

[26] Mendoza notices these splenetic effusions (Guerra de Granada, p. 13); and Bleda (Coronica, p. 636) cites the following couplet from one of them.

"Decid, conde de Urena, Don Alonso donde queda."

[27] The Venetian ambassador, Navagiero, saw the count of Urena at Ossuna, in 1526. He was enjoying a green old age, or, as the minister expresses it, "molto vecchio e gentil corteggiano pero." "Diseases," said the veteran good-humoredly, "sometimes visit me, but seldom tarry long; for my body is like a crazy old inn, where travellers find such poor fare, that they merely touch and go." Viaggio, fol. 17.

[28] Guerra de Granada, p. 301.—Compare the similar painting of Tacitus, in the scene where Germanicus pays the last sad offices to the remains of Varus and his legions. "Dein semiruto vallo, humili fossa, accisae jam reliquiae consedisse intelligebantur: medio campi albentia ossa, ut fugerant, ut restiterant, disjecta vel aggerata; adjacebant fragmina telorum, equorumque artus, simul truncis arborum antefixa ora."(Annales, lib. 1, sect. 61.) Mendoza falls nothing short of this celebrated description of the Roman historian;

"Pan etiam Arcadia dicat se judice victum."

[29] Mendoza, Guerra de Granada, pp. 300-302.

The Moorish insurrection of 1570 was attended with at least one good result, in calling forth this historic masterpiece, the work of the accomplished Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, accomplished alike as a statesman, warrior, and historian. His "Guerra de Granada," confined as it is to a barren fragment of Moorish history, displays such liberal sentiments, (too liberal, indeed, to permit its publication till long after its author's death,) profound reflection, and classic elegance of style, as well entitled him to the appellation of the Spanish Sallust.

[30] Pragmaticas del Reyno, fol. 6.

[31] Pragmaticas del Reyno, fol. 7.

[32] Bleda anxiously claims the credit of the act of expulsion for Fray Thomas de Torquemada, of inquisitorial memory. (Coronica, p. 640.) That eminent personage had, indeed, been dead some years; but this edict was so obviously suggested by that against the Jews, that it may be considered as the result of his principles, if not directly taught by him. Thus it is, "the evil that men do lives after them."

[33] The Castilian writers, especially the dramatic, have not been insensible to the poetical situations afforded by the distresses of the banished Moriscoes. Their sympathy for the exiles, however, is whimsically enough contrasted by an orthodox anxiety to justify the conduct of their own government. The reader may recollect a pertinent example in the story of Sancho's Moorish friend, Ricote. Don Quixote, part. 2, cap. 54.

[34] The spirit of toleration professed by the Moors, indeed, was made a principal argument against them in the archbishop of Valencia's memorial to Philip III. The Mahometans would seem the better Christians of the two. See Geddes, Miscellaneous Tracts, (London, 1702-6,) vol. i. p. 94.

[35] Heeren seems willing to countenance the learned Pluquet in regarding Islamism, in its ancient form, as one of the modifications of Christianity; placing the principal difference between that and Socinianism, for example, in the mere rites of circumcision and baptism. (Essai sur l'Influence des Croisades, traduit par Villers, (Paris, 1808,) p. 175, not.) "The Mussulmans," says Sir William Jones, "are a sort of heterodox Christians, if Locke reasons justly, because they firmly believe the immaculate conception, divine character, and miracles of the Messiah; heterodox in denying vehemently his character of Son, and his equality, as God, with the Father, of whose unity and attributes they entertain and express the most awful ideas." See his Dissertation on the Gods of Greece, Italy, and India; Works, (London, 1799,) vol. i. p. 279.

[36] See the bishop of Orihuela's treatise, "De Bello Sacro," etc., cited by the industrious Clemencin. (Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 15.) The Moors and Jews, of course, stood no chance in this code; the reverend father expresses an opinion, with which Bleda heartily coincides, that the government would be perfectly justified in taking away the life of every Moor in the kingdom, for their shameless infidelity. Ubi supra;— and Bleda, Coronica, p. 995.

[37] The articles of the treaty are detailed at length by Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 19.

[38] Idem, ubi supra.

[39] See the arguments of Ximenes, or of his enthusiastic biographer Flechier, for it is not always easy to discriminate between them. Hist. de Ximenes, pp. 108, 109.

[40] The duke of Medina Sidonia proposed to Ferdinand and Isabella to be avenged on the Moors, in some way not explained, after their disembarkation in Africa, on the ground that, the term of the royal safe- conduct having elapsed, they might lawfully be treated as enemies. To this proposal, which would have done honor to a college of Jesuits in the sixteenth century, the sovereigns made a reply too creditable not to be transcribed. "El Rei e la Reina. Fernando de Zafra, nuestro secretario. Vimos vuestra letra, en que nos fecistes saber lo que el duque de Medinasidonia tenia pensado que se podia facer contra los Moros de Villaluenga despues de desembarcados allende. Decide que le agradecemos y tenemos en servicio el buen deseo que tiene de nos servir: pero porque nuestra, palabra y seguro real asi se debe guardar a los infieles como a los Oristianos, y faciendose lo que el dice pareceria cautela y engano armado sobre nuestro seguro para no le guardar, que en ninguna, manera se haga eso, ni otra cosa de que pueda parecer que se quebranta nuestro seguro. De Granada veinte y nueve de mayo de quinientos y un anos.—Yo el Rei.—Yo la Reina—Por mandado del Rei e del Reina, Miguel Perez Almazan." Would that the suggestions of Isabella's own heart, instead of the clergy, had always been the guide of her conduct in these matters! Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 15, from the original in the archives of the family of Medina Sidonia.

[41] A memorial of the archbishop of Valencia to Philip III. affords an example of this moral obliquity, that may make one laugh, or weep, according to the temper of his philosophy. In this precious document he says, "Your Majesty may, without any scruple of conscience, make slaves of all the Moriscoes, and may put them into your own galleys or mines, or sell them to strangers. And as to their children, they may be all sold at good rates here in Spain; which will be so far from being a punishment, that it will be a mercy to them; since by that means they will all become Christians; which they would never have been, had they continued with their parents. By the holy execution of which piece of justice, a great sum of money will flow into your Majesty's treasury." (Geddes, Miscellaneous Tracts, vol. i. p. 71.) "Il n'est point d'hostilite excellente comme la Chrestienne," says old Montaigne; "nostre zele faict merveilles, quand il va secondant nostre pente vers la haine, la cruante, l'ambition, l'avarice, la detraction, la rebellion. Nostre religion est faicte pour extirper les vices; elle les couvre, les nourrit, les incite." Essais, liv. 2, chap. 12.



CHAPTER VIII.

COLUMBUS.—PROSECUTION OF DISCOVERY.—HIS TREATMENT BY THE COURT.

1494-1503.

Progress of Discovery.—Reaction of Public Feeling.—The Queen's Confidence in Columbus.—He Discovers Terra Firma.—Isabella Sends Back the Indian Slaves.—Complaints against Columbus.—Superseded in the Government.—Vindication of the Sovereigns.—His Fourth and Last Voyage.

The reader will turn with satisfaction from the melancholy and mortifying details of superstition, to the generous efforts, which the Spanish government was making to enlarge the limits of science and dominion in the west. "Amidst the storms and troubles of Italy, Spain was every day stretching her wings over a wider sweep of empire, and extending the glory of her name to the far Antipodes." Such is the swell of exultation with which the enthusiastic Italian, Martyr, notices the brilliant progress of discovery under his illustrious countryman Columbus. [1] The Spanish sovereigns had never lost sight of the new domain, so unexpectedly opened to them, as it were, from the depths of the ocean. The first accounts transmitted by the great navigator and his companions, on his second voyage, while their imaginations were warm with the beauty and novelty of the scenes which met their eyes in the New World, served to keep alive the tone of excitement, which their unexpected successes had kindled in the nation. [2] The various specimens sent home in the return ships, of the products of these unknown regions, confirmed the agreeable belief that they formed part of the great Asiatic continent, which had so long excited the cupidity of Europeans. The Spanish court, sharing in the general enthusiasm, endeavored to promote the spirit of discovery and colonization, by forwarding the requisite supplies, and complying promptly with the most minute suggestions of Columbus. But, in less than two years from the commencement of his second voyage, the face of things experienced a melancholy change. Accounts were received at home of the most alarming discontent and disaffection in the colony; while the actual returns from these vaunted regions were so scanty, as to bear no proportion to the expenses of the expedition.

This unfortunate result was in a great measure imputable to the misconduct of the colonists themselves. Most of them were adventurers, who had embarked with no other expectation than that of getting together a fortune as speedily as possible in the golden Indies. They were without subordination, patience, industry, or any of the regular habits demanded for success in such an enterprise. As soon as they had launched from their native shore, they seemed to feel themselves released from the constraints of all law. They harbored jealousy and distrust of the admiral as a foreigner. The cavaliers and hidalgos, of whom there were too many in the expedition, contemned him as an upstart, whom it was derogatory to obey. From the first moment of their landing in Hispaniola, they indulged the most wanton license in regard to the unoffending natives, who, in the simplicity of their hearts, had received the white men as messengers from Heaven. Their outrages, however, soon provoked a general resistance, which led to such a war of extermination, that, in less than four years after the Spaniards had set foot on the island, one-third of its population, amounting, probably, to several hundred thousands, were sacrificed! Such were the melancholy auspices, under which the intercourse was opened between the civilized white man and the simple natives of the western world. [3]

These excesses, and a total neglect of agriculture,—for none would condescend to turn up the earth for any other object than the gold they could find in it,—at length occasioned an alarming scarcity of provisions; while the poor Indians neglected their usual husbandry, being willing to starve themselves, so that they could starve out their oppressors. [4] In order to avoid the famine which menaced his little colony, Columbus was obliged to resort to coercive measures, shortening the allowance of food, and compelling all to work, without distinction of rank. These unpalatable regulations soon bred general discontent. The high-mettled hidalgos, especially, complained loudly of the indignity of such mechanical drudgery, while Father Boil and his brethren were equally outraged by the diminution of their regular rations. [5]

The Spanish sovereigns were now daily assailed with complaints of the mal- administration of Columbus, and of his impolitic and unjust severities to both Spaniards and natives. They lent, however, an unwilling ear to these vague accusations; they fully appreciated the difficulties of his situation; and, although they sent out an agent to inquire into the nature of the troubles which threatened the existence of the colony, they were careful to select an individual who they thought would be most grateful to the admiral; and when the latter in the following year, 1496, returned to Spain, they received him with the most ample acknowledgments of regard. "Come to us," they said, in a kind letter of congratulation, addressed to him soon after his arrival, "when you can do it without inconvenience to yourself, for you have endured too many vexations already." [6]

The admiral brought with him, as before, such samples of the productions of the western hemisphere, as would strike the public eye, and keep alive the feeling of curiosity. On his journey through Andalusia, he passed some days under the hospitable roof of the good curate, Bernaldez, who dwells with much satisfaction on the remarkable appearance of the Indian chiefs, following in the admiral's train, gorgeously decorated with golden collars and coronets and various barbaric ornaments. Among these he particularly notices certain "belts and masks of cotton and of wood, with figures of the Devil embroidered and carved thereon, sometimes in his own proper likeness, and at others in that of a cat or an owl. There is much reason," he infers, "to believe that he appears to the islanders in this guise, and that they are all idolaters, having Satan for their lord!" [7]

But neither the attractions of the spectacle, nor the glowing representations of Columbus, who fancied he had discovered in the mines of Hispaniola the golden quarries of Ophir, from which King Solomon had enriched the temple of Jerusalem, could rekindle the dormant enthusiasm of the nation. The novelty of the thing had passed. They heard a different tale, moreover, from the other voyagers, whose wan and sallow visages provoked the bitter jest, that they had returned with more gold in their faces than in their pockets. In short, the skepticism of the public seemed now quite in proportion to its former overweening confidence; and the returns were so meagre, says Bernaldez, "that it was very generally believed there was little or no gold in the island." [8]

Isabella was far from participating in this unreasonable distrust. She had espoused the theory of Columbus, when others looked coldly or contemptuously on it. [9] She firmly relied on his repeated assurances, that the track of discovery would lead to other and more important regions. She formed a higher estimate, moreover, of the value of the new acquisitions than any founded on the actual proceeds in gold and silver; keeping ever in view, as her letters and instructions abundantly show, the glorious purpose of introducing the blessings of Christian civilization among the heathen. [10] She entertained a deep sense of the merits of Columbus, to whose serious and elevated character her own bore much resemblance; although the enthusiasm, which distinguished each, was naturally tempered in hers with somewhat more of benignity and discretion.

But although the queen was willing to give the most effectual support to his great enterprise, the situation of the country was such as made delay in its immediate prosecution unavoidable. Large expense was necessarily incurred for the actual maintenance of the colony; [11] the exchequer was liberally drained, moreover, by the Italian war, as well as by the profuse magnificence with which the nuptials of the royal family were now celebrating. It was, indeed, in the midst of the courtly revelries attending the marriage of Prince John, that the admiral presented himself before the sovereigns at Burgos, after his second voyage. Such was the low condition of the treasury from these causes, that Isabella was obliged to defray the cost of an outfit to the colony, at this time, from funds originally destined for the marriage of her daughter Isabella with the king of Portugal. [12]

This unwelcome delay, however, was softened to Columbus by the distinguished marks which he daily received of the royal favor; and various ordinances were passed, confirming and enlarging his great powers and privileges in the most ample manner, to a greater extent, indeed, than his modesty, or his prudence, would allow him to accept. [13] The language in which these princely gratuities were conferred, rendered them doubly grateful to his noble heart, containing, as they did, the most emphatic acknowledgments of his "many good, loyal, distinguished, and continual services," and thus testifying the unabated confidence of his sovereigns in his integrity and prudence. [14]

Among the impediments to the immediate completion of the arrangements for the admiral's departure on his third voyage, may be also noticed the hostility of Bishop Fonseca, who, at this period, had the control of the Indian department; a man of an irritable, and, as it would seem, most unforgiving temper, who, from some causes of disgust which he had conceived with Columbus previous to his second voyage, lost no opportunity of annoying and thwarting him, for which his official station unfortunately afforded him too many facilities. [15]

From these various circumstances the admiral's fleet was not ready before the beginning of 1498. Even then further embarrassment occurred in manning it, as few were found willing to embark in a service which had fallen into such general discredit. This led to the ruinous expedient of substituting convicts, whose regular punishments were commuted into transportation, for a limited period, to the Indies. No measure could possibly have been devised more effectual for the ruin of the infant settlement. The seeds of corruption, which had been so long festering in the Old World, soon shot up into a plentiful harvest in the New, and Columbus, who suggested the measure, was the first to reap the fruits of it.

At length, all being in readiness, the admiral embarked on board his little squadron, consisting of six vessels, whose complement of men, notwithstanding every exertion, was still deficient, and took his departure from the port of St. Lucar, May 30th, 1498. He steered in a more southerly direction than on his preceding voyages, and on the first of August succeeded in reaching terra firma; thus entitling himself to the glory of being the first to set foot on the great southern continent, to which he had before opened the way. [16]

It is not necessary to pursue the track of the illustrious voyager, whose career, forming the most brilliant episode to the history of the present reign, has been so recently traced by a hand which few will care to follow. It will suffice briefly to notice his personal relations with the Spanish government, and the principles on which the colonial administration was conducted.

On his arrival at Hispaniola, Columbus found the affairs of the colony in the most deplorable confusion. An insurrection had been raised by the arts of a few factious individuals against his brother Bartholomew, to whom he had intrusted the government during his absence. In this desperate rebellion all the interests of the community were neglected. The mines, which were just beginning to yield a golden harvest, remained unwrought. The unfortunate natives were subjected to the most inhuman oppression. There was no law but that of the strongest. Columbus, on his arrival, in vain endeavored to restore order. The very crews he brought with him, who had been unfortunately reprieved from the gibbet in their own country, served to swell the mass of mutiny. The admiral exhausted art, negotiation, entreaty, force, and succeeded at length in patching up a specious reconciliation by such concessions as essentially impaired his own authority. Among these was the grant of large tracts of land to the rebels, with permission to the proprietor to employ an allotted number of the natives in its cultivation. This was the origin of the celebrated system of repartimientos, which subsequently led to the foulest abuses that ever disgraced humanity. [17]

Nearly a year elapsed after the admiral's return to Hispaniola, before he succeeded in allaying these intestine feuds. In the mean while, rumors were every day reaching Spain of the distractions of the colony, accompanied with most injurious imputations on the conduct of Columbus and his brother, who were loudly accused of oppressing both Spaniards and Indians, and of sacrificing the public interests, in the most unscrupulous manner, to their own. These complaints were rung in the very ears of the sovereigns by numbers of the disaffected colonists, who had returned to Spain, and who surrounded the king, as he rode out on horseback, clamoring loudly for the discharge of the arrears, of which they said the admiral had defrauded them. [18]

There were not wanting, even, persons of high consideration at the court, to give credence and circulation to these calumnies. The recent discovery of the pearl fisheries of Paria, as well as of more prolific veins of the precious metals in Hispaniola, and the prospect of an indefinite extent of unexplored country, opened by the late voyage of Columbus, made the viceroyalty of the New World a tempting bait for the avarice and ambition of the most potent grandee. They artfully endeavored, therefore, to undermine the admiral's credit with the sovereigns, by raising in their minds suspicions of his integrity, founded not merely on vague reports, but on letters received from the colony, charging him with disloyalty, with appropriating to his own use the revenues of the island, and with the design of erecting an independent government for himself. [19]

Whatever weight these absurd charges may have had with Ferdinand, they had no power to shake the queen's confidence in Columbus, or lead her to suspect his loyalty for a moment. But the long-continued distractions of the colony made her feel a natural distrust of his capacity to govern it, whether from the jealousy entertained of him as a foreigner, or from some inherent deficiency in his own character. These doubts were mingled, it is true, with sterner feelings towards the admiral, on the arrival, at this juncture, of several of the rebels with the Indian slaves assigned to them by his orders. [20]

It was the received opinion among good Catholics of that period, that heathen and barbarous nations were placed by the circumstance of their infidelity without the pale both of spiritual and civil rights. Their souls were doomed to eternal perdition. Their bodies were the property of the Christian nation who should occupy their soil. [21] Such, in brief, were the profession and the practice of the most enlightened Europeans of the fifteenth century; and such the deplorable maxims which regulated the intercourse of the Spanish and Portuguese navigators with the uncivilized natives of the western world. [22] Columbus, agreeably to these views, had, very soon after the occupation of Hispaniola, recommended a regular exchange of slaves for the commodities required for the support of the colony; representing, moreover, that in this way their conversion would be more surely effected,—an object, it must be admitted, which he seems to have ever had most earnestly at heart. Isabella, however, entertained views on this matter far more liberal than those of her age. She had been deeply interested by the accounts she had received from the admiral himself of the gentle, unoffending character of the islanders; and she revolted at the idea of consigning them to the horrors of slavery, without even an effort for their conversion. She hesitated, therefore, to sanction his proposal; and when a number of Indian captives were advertised to be sold in the markets of Andalusia, she commanded the sale to be suspended, till the opinion of a counsel of theologians and doctors, learned in such matters, could be obtained, as to its conscientious lawfulness. She yielded still further to the benevolent impulses of her nature, causing holy men to be instructed as far as possible in the Indian languages, and sent out as missionaries for the conversion of the natives. [23] Some of them, as Father Boil and his brethren, seem, indeed, to have been more concerned for the welfare of their own bodies, than for the souls of their benighted flock. But others, imbued with a better spirit, wrought in the good work with disinterested zeal, and, if we may credit their accounts, with some efficacy. [24]

In the same beneficent spirit, the royal letters and ordinances urged over and over again the paramount obligation of the religious instruction of the natives, and of observing the utmost gentleness and humanity in all dealings with them. When, therefore, the queen learned the arrival of two vessels from the Indies, with three hundred slaves on board, which the admiral had granted to the mutineers, she could not repress her indignation, but impatiently asked, "By what authority does Columbus venture thus to dispose of my subjects?" She instantly caused proclamation to be made in the southern provinces, that all who had Indian slaves in their possession, granted by the admiral, should forthwith provide for their return to their own country; while the few, still held by the crown, were to be restored to freedom in like manner. [25]

After a long and visible reluctance, the queen acquiesced in sending out a commissioner to investigate the affairs of the colony. The person appointed to this delicate trust was Don Francisco de Bobadilla, a poor knight of Calatrava. He was invested with supreme powers of civil and criminal jurisdiction. He was to bring to trial and pass sentence on all such as had conspired against the authority of Columbus. He was authorized to take possession of the fortresses, vessels, public stores, and property of every description, to dispose of all offices, and to command whatever persons he might deem expedient for the tranquillity of the island, without distinction of rank, to return to Spain, and present themselves before the sovereigns. Such, in brief, was the sum of the extraordinary powers intrusted to Bobadilla. [26]

It is impossible now to determine what motives could have led to the selection of so incompetent an agent, for an office of such high responsibility. He seems to have been a weak and arrogant man, swelled up with immeasurable insolence by the brief authority thus undeservedly bestowed on him. From the very first, he regarded Columbus in the light of a convicted criminal, on whom it was his business to execute the sentence of the law. Accordingly, on his arrival at the island, after an ostentatious parade of his credentials, he commanded the admiral to appear before him, and, without affecting the forms of a legal inquiry, at once caused him to be manacled, and thrown into prison. Columbus submitted without the least show of resistance, displaying in this sad reverse that magnanimity of soul, which would have touched the heart of a generous adversary. Bobadilla, however, discovered no such sensibility; and, after raking together all the foul or frivolous calumnies, which hatred or the hope of favor could extort, he caused the whole loathsome mass of accusation to be sent back to Spain with the admiral, whom he commanded to be kept strictly in irons during the passage; "afraid," says Ferdinand Columbus bitterly, "lest he might by any chance swim back again to the island." [27]

This excess of malice served, as usual, however, to defeat itself. So enormous an outrage shocked the minds of those most prejudiced against Columbus. All seemed to feel it as a national dishonor, that such indignities should be heaped on the man, who, whatever might be his indiscretions, had done so much for Spain, and for the whole civilized world; a man, who, in the honest language of an old writer, "had he lived in the days of ancient Greece or Rome, would have had statues raised, and temples and divine honors dedicated to him, as to a divinity!" [28]

None partook of the general indignation more strongly than Ferdinand and Isabella, who, in addition to their personal feelings of disgust at so gross an act, readily comprehended the whole weight of obloquy, which its perpetration must necessarily attach to them. They sent to Cadiz without an instant's delay, and commanded the admiral to be released from his ignominious fetters. They wrote to him in the most benignant terms, expressing their sincere regret for the unworthy usage which he had experienced, and requesting him to appear before them as speedily as possible, at Granada, where the court was then staying. At the same time, they furnished him a thousand ducats for his expenses, and a handsome retinue to escort him on his journey.

Columbus, revived by these assurances of the kind dispositions of his sovereigns, proceeded without delay to Granada, which he reached on the 17th of December. Immediately on his arrival he obtained an audience. The queen could not repress her tears at the sight of the man, whose illustrious services had met with such ungenerous requital, as it were, at her own hands. She endeavored to cheer his wounded spirit with the most earnest assurances of her sympathy and sorrow for his misfortunes. Columbus, from the first moment of his disgrace, had relied on the good faith and kindness of Isabella; for, as an ancient Castilian writer remarks, "she had ever favored him beyond the king her husband, protecting his interests, and showing him especial kindness and good-will." When he beheld the emotion of his royal mistress, and listened to her consolatory language, it was too much for his loyal and generous heart; and, throwing himself on his knees, he gave vent to his feelings, and sobbed aloud. The sovereigns endeavored to soothe and tranquillize his mind, and, after testifying their deep sense of his injuries, promised him, that impartial justice should be done his enemies, and that he should be reinstated in his emoluments and honors. [29]

Much censure has attached to the Spanish government for its share in this unfortunate transaction; both in the appointment of so unsuitable an agent as Bobadilla, and the delegation of such broad and indefinite powers. With regard to the first, it is now too late, as has already been remarked, to ascertain on what grounds such a selection could have been made. There is no evidence of his being indebted for his promotion to intrigue or any undue influence. Indeed, according to the testimony of one of his contemporaries, he was reputed "an extremely honest and religious man," and the good bishop Las Casas expressly declares that "no imputation of dishonesty or avarice had ever rested on his character." [30] It was an error of judgment; a grave one, indeed, and must pass for as much as it is worth.

But in regard to the second charge, of delegating unwarrantable powers, it should be remembered, that the grievances of the colony were represented as of a most pressing nature, demanding a prompt and peremptory remedy; that a more limited and partial authority, dependent for its exercise on instructions from the government at home, might be attended with ruinous delays; that this authority must necessarily be paramount to that of Columbus, who was a party implicated, and that, although unlimited jurisdiction was given over all offences committed against him, yet neither he nor his friends were to be molested in any other way than by temporary suspension from office, and a return to their own country, where the merits of their case might be submitted to the sovereigns themselves.

This view of the matter, indeed, is perfectly conformable to that of Ferdinand Columbus, whose solicitude, so apparent in every page, for his father's reputation, must have effectually counterbalanced any repugnance he may have felt at impugning the conduct of his sovereigns. "The only ground of complaint," he remarks, in summing up his narrative of the transaction, "which I can bring against their Catholic Highnesses is, the unfitness of the agent whom they employed, equally malicious and ignorant. Had they sent out a suitable person, the admiral would have been highly gratified; since he had more than once requested the appointment of some one with full powers of jurisdiction in an affair, where he felt some natural delicacy in moving, in consequence of his own brother having been originally involved in it." And, as to the vast magnitude of the powers intrusted to Bobadilla, he adds," It can scarcely be wondered at, considering the manifold complaints against the admiral made to their Highnesses." [31]

Although the king and queen determined without hesitation on the complete restoration of the admiral's honors, they thought it better to defer his reappointment to the government of the colony, until the present disturbances should be settled, and he might return there with personal safety and advantage. In the mean time, they resolved to send out a competent individual, and to support him with such a force as should overawe faction, and enable him to place the tranquillity of the island on a permanent basis.

The person selected was Don Nicolas de Ovando, comendador of Lares, of the military order of Alcantara. He was a man of acknowledged prudence and sagacity, temperate in his habits, and plausible and politic in his address. It is sufficient evidence of his standing at court, that he had been one of the ten youths selected to be educated in the palace as companions for the prince of the Asturias. He was furnished with a fleet of two and thirty sail, carrying twenty-five hundred persons, many of them of the best families in the kingdom, with every variety of article for the nourishment and permanent prosperity of the colony; and the general equipment was in a style of expense and magnificence, such as had never before been lavished on any armada destined for the western waters. [32]

The new governor was instructed immediately on his arrival to send Bobadilla home for trial. Under his lax administration, abuses of every kind had multiplied to an alarming extent, and the poor natives, in particular, were rapidly wasting away under the new and most inhuman arrangement of the repartimientos, which he established. Isabella now declared the Indians free; and emphatically enjoined on the authorities of Hispaniola to respect them as true and faithful vassals of the crown. Ovando was especially to ascertain the amount of losses sustained by Columbus and his brothers, to provide for their full indemnification, and to secure the unmolested enjoyment in future of all their lawful rights and pecuniary perquisites. [33]

Fortified with the most ample instructions in regard to these and other details of his administration, the governor embarked on board his magnificent flotilla, and crossed the bar of St. Lucar, February 15th, 1502. A furious tempest dispersed the fleet, before it had been out a week, and a report reached Spain that it had entirely perished. The sovereigns, overwhelmed with sorrow at this fresh disaster, which consigned so many of their best and bravest to a watery grave, shut themselves up in their palace for several days. Fortunately, the report proved ill-founded. The fleet rode out the storm in safety, one vessel only having perished, and the remainder reached in due time its place of destination. [34]

The Spanish government has been roundly taxed with injustice and ingratitude for its delay in restoring Columbus to the full possession of his colonial authority; and that too by writers generally distinguished for candor and impartiality. No such animadversion, however, as far as I am aware, is countenanced by contemporary historians; and it appears to be wholly undeserved. Independent of the obvious inexpediency of returning him immediately to the theatre of disaffection, before the embers of ancient animosity had had time to cool, there were several features in his character, which make it doubtful whether he were the most competent person, in any event, for an emergency demanding at once the greatest coolness, consummate address, and acknowledged personal authority. His sublime enthusiasm, which carried him victorious over every obstacle, involved him also in numerous embarrassments, which men of more phlegmatic temperament would have escaped. It led him to count too readily on a similar spirit in others,—and to be disappointed. It gave an exaggerated coloring to his views and descriptions, that inevitably led to a reaction in the minds of such as embarked their all on the splendid dreams of a fairy land, which they were never to realize. [35] Hence a fruitful source of discontent and disaffection in his followers. It led him, in his eagerness for the achievement of his great enterprises, to be less scrupulous and politic as to the means, than a less ardent spirit would have been. His pertinacious adherence to the scheme of Indian slavery, and hhis impolitic regulation compelling the labor of the hidalgos, are pertinent examples of this. [36] He was, moreover, a foreigner, without rank, fortune, or powerful friends; and his high and sudden elevation naturally raised him up a thousand enemies among a proud, punctilious, and intensely national people. Under these multiplied embarrassments, resulting from peculiarities of character and situation, the sovereigns might well be excused for not intrusting Columbus, at this delicate crisis, with disentangling the meshes of intrigue and faction, in which the affairs of the colony were so unhappily involved.

I trust these remarks will not be construed into an insensibility to the merits and exalted services of Columbus. "A world," to borrow the words, though not the application, of the Greek historian, "is his monument." His virtues shine With too bright a lustre to be dimmed by a few natural blemishes; but it becomes necessary to notice these, to vindicate the Spanish government from the imputation of perfidy and ingratitude, where it has been most freely urged, and apparently with the least foundation.

It is more difficult to excuse the paltry equipment with which the admiral was suffered to undertake his fourth and last voyage. The object proposed by this expedition was the discovery of a passage to the great Indian Ocean, which, he inferred sagaciously enough from his premises, though, as it turned out, to the great inconvenience of the commercial world, most erroneously, must open somewhere between Cuba and the coast of Paria. Four caravels, only, were furnished for the expedition, the largest of which did not exceed seventy tons' burden; a force forming a striking contrast to the magnificent armada lately intrusted to Ovando, and altogether too insignificant to be vindicated on the ground of the different objects proposed by the two expeditions. [37]

Columbus, oppressed with growing infirmities, and a consciousness, perhaps, of the decline of popular favor, manifested unusual despondency previously to his embarkation. He talked even of resigning the task of further discovery to his brother Bartholomew. "I have established," said he, "all that I proposed,—the existence of land in the west. I have opened the gate, and others may enter at their pleasure; as indeed they do, arrogating to themselves the title of discoverers, to which they can have little claim, following as they do in my track." He little thought the ingratitude of mankind would sanction the claims of these adventurers so far as to confer the name of one of them on that world, which his genius had revealed. [38]

The great inclination, however, which the admiral had to serve the Catholic sovereigns, and especially the most serene queen, says Ferdinand Columbus, induced him to lay aside his scruples, and encounter the perils and fatigues of another voyage. A few weeks before his departure, he received a gracious letter from Ferdinand and Isabella, the last ever addressed to him by his royal mistress, assuring him of their purpose to maintain inviolate all their engagements with him, and to perpetuate the inheritance of his honors in his family. [39] Comforted and cheered by assurances, the veteran navigator, quitting the port of Cadiz, on the 9th of March, 1502, once more spread his sails for those golden regions, which he had approached so near, but was destined never to reach.

It will not be necessary to pursue his course further than to notice a single occurrence of most extraordinary nature. The admiral had received instructions not to touch at Hispaniola on his outward voyage. The leaky condition of one of his ships, however, and the signs of an approaching storm, induced him to seek a temporary refuge there; at the same time, he counselled Ovando to delay for a few days the departure of the fleet, then riding in the harbor, which was destined to carry Bobadilla and the rebels with their ill-gotten treasures back to Spain. The churlish governor, however, not only refused Columbus admittance, but gave orders for the instant departure of the vessels. The apprehensions of the experienced mariner were fully justified by the event. Scarcely had the Spanish fleet quitted its moorings, before one of those tremendous hurricanes came on, which so often desolate these tropical regions, sweeping down everything before it, and fell with such violence on the little navy, that out of eighteen ships, of which it was composed, not more than three or four escaped. The rest all foundered, including those which contained Bobadilla, and the late enemies of Columbus. Two hundred thousand castellanos of gold, half of which belonged to the government, went to the bottom with them. The only one of the fleet which made its way back to Spain was a crazy, weather-beaten bark, which contained the admiral's property, amounting to four thousand ounces of gold. To complete these curious coincidences, Columbus with his little squadron rode out the storm in safety under the lee of the island, where he had prudently taken shelter, on being so rudely repulsed from the port. This even-handed retribution of justice, so uncommon in human affairs, led many to discern the immediate interposition of Providence. Others, in a less Christian temper, referred it all to the necromancy of the admiral. [40]

FOOTNOTES

[1] "Inter has Italiae procellas magis indies ac magis alas protendit Hispania, imperium auget, gloriam nomenque suum ad Antipodes porriget." Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 146.

[2] See, among others, a letter of Dr. Chanca, who accompanied Columbus on his second voyage. It is addressed to the authorities of Seville. After noticing the evidences of gold in Hispaniola, he says; "Ansi que de cierto los Reyes nuestros Senores desde agora se pueden tener por los mas prosperos e mas ricos Principes del mundo, porque tal cosa hasta agora no se ha visto ni leido de ningnno en el mundo, porque verdaderamente a otro camino que los navios vuelvan puedan llevar tanta cantidad de oro que se pueden maravillar cualesquiera que lo supieren." In another part of the letter, the Doctor is equally sanguine in regard to the fruitfulness of the soil and climate. Letra de Dr. Chanca, apud Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. i. pp. 198-224.

[3] Fernando Colon, Hist. de Almirante, cap. 60, 62.—Munoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 5, sec. 25.—Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 2, cap. 9.—Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., lib. 1, cap. 9.

[4] The Indians had some grounds for relying on the efficacy of starvation, if, as Las Casas gravely asserts, "one Spaniard consumed in a single day as much as would suffice three families!" Llorente, Oeuvres de Don Barthelemi de las Casas, precedees de sa Vie, (Paris, 1822,) tom. i. p. 11.

[5] Martyr, De Rebus Oceanicis, dec. 1, lib. 4.—Goinara, Hist. de las Indias, cap. 20, tom. ii.—Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 2, cap. 12.

[6] Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Doc. Dipl., no. 101.— Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 64.—Munoz, Hist. del Nuevo- Mundo, lib. 5, sec. 31.

[7] Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 131.—Herrera expresses the same charitable opinion. "Muy claramente se conocio que el demonio estava, apoderado de aquella gente, y la traia ciega y enganada, hablandoles, y mostrandoles en diversas figuras." Indias Occidentales, lib. 3, cap. 4.

[8] Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 131.—Munoz, Hist. del Nuevo- Mundo, lib. 6, sec. 1.

[9] Columbus, in his letter to Prince John's nurse, dated 1500, makes the following ample acknowledgment of the queen's early protection of him. "En todos hobo incredulidad, y a la Reina mi Senora dio Nuestro Senor el espiritu de inteligencia y esfuerzo grande, y la hizo de todo heredera como a cara y muy amada hija." "Su Alteza lo aprobaba al contrario, y lo sostuvo fasta que pudo." Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. i. p. 266.

[10] See the letters to Columbus, dated May 14th, 1493, August, 1494, apud Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii. pp. 66, 154, et mult. al.

[11] The salaries alone, annually disbursed by the crown to persons resident in the colony, amounted to six million maravedies. Munoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 5, sec. 33.

[12] Idem, lib. 6, sec. 2.—Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 64. —Herrera, Indias Occidentales, lib. 3, cap. 1.

[13] Such, for example, was the grant of an immense tract of land in Hispaniola, with the title of count or duke, as the admiral might prefer. Munoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 6, sec. 17.

[14] The instrument establishing the mayorazgo, or perpetual entail of Columbus's estates, contains an injunction, that "his heirs shall never use any other signature than that of 'the Admiral, el Almirante, whatever other titles and honors may belong to them." That title indicated his peculiar achievements, and it was an honest pride which led him by this simple expedient to perpetuate the remembrance of them in his posterity. See the original document, apud Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii. pp. 221-235.

[15] Munoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 6, sec. 20.—Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 64.—Zuniga, Annales de Sevilla, ano 1496.

[16] Peter Martyr, De Rebus Oceanicis, dec. 1, lib. e.—Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Doc. Dipl., nos. 116, 120.—Tercer Viage de Colon, apud Navarrete, tom. i. p. 245.—Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., lib. 1, cap. 10, ll.—Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 3, cap. 10, ll.— Munoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 6, sec. 19.

[17] Gomara, Hist. de las Indias, cap. 20.—Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., lib. 1, cap. 10, ll.—Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 19, cap. 7.— Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 73-82.—Peter Martyr, De Rebus Oceanicis, dec. 1, lib. 5.—Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 3, cap. 16.—Munoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 6, sec. 40-42.

[18] Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 19, cap. 7.—Peter Martyr, De Rebus Oceanicis, dec. 1, lib. 7.—Gomara, Hist. de las Indias, cap. 23.— Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., cap. 11.

Ferdinand Columbus mentions that he and his brother, who were then pages to the queen, could not stir out into the courtyard of the Alhambra, without being followed by fifty of these vagabonds, who insulted them in the grossest manner, "as the sons of the adventurer, who had led so many brave Spanish hidalgos to seek their graves in the land of vanity and delusion which he had found out." Hist. del Almirante, cap. 85.

[19] Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., lib. 1, cap. 12.—National feeling operated, no doubt, as well as avarice to sharpen the tooth of slander against the admiral. "Aegre multi patiuntur," says Columbus's countryman, with honest warmth, "peregrinum hominem, et quidem e nostra Italia ortum, tantum honoris ac gloriae consequutum, ut non tantum Hispanicae gentis, sed et cujusvis alterius homines superaverit." Benzoni, lib. 1, cap. 5.

[20] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, lib. 4, cap. 7, 10, and more especially lib. 6, cap. 13.—Las Casas, Oeuvres, ed. de Llorente, tom. i. p. 306.

[21] "La qualite de Catholique Romain," says the philosophic Villers, "avait tout-a-fait remplace celle d'homme, et meme de Chretien. Qui n'etait pas Catholique Romain, n'etait pas homme, etait moins qu'homme; et eut-il ete un souverain, c'etait une bonne action que de lui oter la vie." (Essai sur la Reformation, p. 56. ed. 1820.) Las Casas rests the title of the Spanish crown to its American possessions on the original papal grant, made on condition of converting the natives to Christianity. The pope, as vicar of Jesns Christ, possesses plenary authority over all men for the safety of their souls. He might, therefore, in furtherance of this, confer on the Spanish sovereigns imperial supremacy over all lands discovered by them,—not, however, to the prejudice of authorities already existing there, and over such nations only as voluntarily embraced Christianity. Such is the sum of his thirty propositions, submitted to the council of the Indies for the inspection of Charles V. (Oeuvres, ed. De Llorente, tom. i. pp. 286-311.) One may see in these arbitrary and whimsical limitations, the good bishop's desire to reconcile what reason told him were the natural rights of man, with what faith prescribed as the legitimate prerogative of the pope. Few Roman Catholics at the present day will be found sturdy enough to maintain this lofty prerogative, however carefully limited. Still fewer in the sixteenth century would have challenged it. Indeed, it is but just to Las Casas, to admit, that the general scope of his arguments, here and elsewhere, is very far in advance of his age.

[22] A Spanish casuist founds the right of his nation to enslave the Indians, among other things, on their smoking tobacco, and not trimming their beards a l'Espagnole. At least, this is Montesquieu's interpretation of it. (Esprit des Loix, lib. 15, chap. 3.) The doctors of the Inquisition could hardly have found a better reason.

[23] 23 Munoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 5, sec. 34.—Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Doc. Dipl., no. 92.—Herrera, Indias Occidentales, lib. 3, cap. 4.

[24] "Among other things that the holy fathers carried out," says Robles, "was a little organ and several bells, which greatly delighted the simple people, so that from one to two thousand persons were baptized every day." (Vida de Ximenez, p. 120.)

Ferdinand Columbus remarks with some naivete, that "the Indians were so obedient from their fear of the admiral, and at the same time so desirous to oblige him, that they voluntarily became Christians!" Hist. del Almirante, cap. 84.

[25] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, lib. 4, cap. 7.—Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Doc. Dipl., no. 134.

Las Casas observes, that "so great was the queen's indignation at the admiral's misconduct in this particular, that nothing but the consideration of his great public services saved him from immediate disgrace." Oeuvres, ed. de Llorente, tom. i. p. 306.

[26] Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Doc. Dipl., nos. 127-130. The original commission to Bobadilla was dated March 21st, and May 21st, 1499; the execution of it, however, was delayed until July, 1500, in the hope, doubtless, of obtaining such tidings from Hispaniola as should obviate the necessity of a measure so prejudicial to the admiral.

[27] Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 86.—Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 19, cap. 7.—Peter Martyr, De Rebus Oceanicis, dec. 1, lib. 7.—Gomara, Hist. de las Indias, cap. 23.—Herrera, Indias Occidentales, lib. 4, cap. 10.—Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., lib. 1, cap. 12.

[28] Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., lib. 1, cap. 12.—Herrera, Indias Occidentales, lib. 6, cap. 15.

Ferdinand Columbus tells us, that his father kept the fetters in which he was brought home, hanging up in an apartment of his house, as a perpetual memorial of national ingratitude, and, when he died, ordered them to be buried in the same grave with himself. Hist. del Almirante, cap. 86.

[29] Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 19, cap. 7.—Peter Martyr, De Rebus Oceanicis, dec. 1, lib. 7.—Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 86, 87.—Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. I, lib. 4, cap. 8-10.—Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., lib. 1, cap. 12.

[30] Oviedo, Hist. Gen. de las Ind., p. 1, lib. 3, cap. 6.—Las Casas, lib. 2, cap. 6, apud Navarrete, tom. i., introd., p. 99.

[31] Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 86.

[32] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 4, cap. 11.—Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 87.—Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., lib. 1, cap. 12.—Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. p. 385.

[33] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, lib. 4, cap. 11-13.—Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Doc. Dipl., nos. 138,144.—Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 87.

[34] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, lib. 5, cap. 1.

[35] The high devotional feeling of Columbus led him to trace out allusions in Scripture to the various circumstances and scenes of his adventurous life. Thus he believed his great discovery announced in the Apocalypse, and in Isaiah; he identified, as I have before stated, the mines of Hispaniola with those which furnished Solomon with materials for his temple; he fancied that he had determined the actual locality of the garden of Eden in the newly discovered region of Paria. But his greatest extravagance was his project of a crusade for the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre. This he cherished from the first hour of his discovery, pressing it in the most urgent manner on the sovereigns, and making actual provision for it in his testament. This was a flight, however, beyond the spirit even of this romantic age, and probably received as little serious attention from the queen, as from her more cool and calculating husband. Peter Martyr, De Rebus Oceanicis, dec. 1, lib. 6.—Tercer, Viage de Colon, apud Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. i. p. 259.—tom. ii., Doc. Dipl., no. 140.—Herrera, Indias Occidentales, lib. 6, cap. 15.

[36] Another example was the injudicious punishment of delinquents by diminishing their regular allowance of food, a measure so obnoxious as to call for the interference of the sovereigns, who prohibited it altogether. (Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Doc. Dipl., 97.) Herrera, who must be admitted to have been in no degree insensible to the merits of Columbus, closes his account of the various accusations urged against him and his brothers, with the remark, that, "with every allowance for calumny, they must be confessed not to have governed the Castilians with the moderation that they ought to have done." Indias Occidentales, lib. 4, cap. 9.

[37] Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 19, cap. 14.—Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 88.—Herrera, Indias Occidentales, lib. 5, cap. 1.— Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., cap. 14.

[38] It would be going out of our way to investigate the pretensions of Amerigo Vespucci to the honor of first discovering the South American continent. The reader will find them displayed with perspicuity and candor by Mr. Irving, in his "Life of Columbus." (Appendix, No. 9.) Few will be disposed to contest the author's conclusion respecting their fallacy, though all may not have the same charity as he, in tracing its possible origin to an editorial blunder, instead of wilful fabrication on the part of Vespucci; in which light, indeed, it seems to have been regarded by the two most ancient and honest historians of the event, Las Casas and Herrera.

Mr. Irving's conclusions, however, have since been confirmed, in the fullest manner, by M. de Humboldt, in the fifth volume of his "Geographie du Nouveau Continent," published in 1839, a year after the preceding portion of this note was first printed; in which he has assembled a mass of testimony, suggesting the most favorable impressions of Vespucci's innocence of the various charges brought against him.

Since the appearance of Mr. Irving's work, Senor Navarrete has published the third volume of his "Coleccion de Viages y Descubrimientos," etc., containing, among other things, the original letters recording Vespucci's American voyages, illustrated by all the authorities and facts, that could come within the scope of his indefatigable researches. The whole weight of evidence leads irresistibly to the conviction, that Columbus is entitled to the glory of being the original discoverer of the southern continent, as well as islands, of the western hemisphere. (Coleccion de Viages, tom. iii. pp. 183-334.)

In addition to the preceding writers, the American reader will find the claims of Vespucci discussed, with much ingenuity and careful examination of authorities, by Mr. Cushing, in his "Reminiscences of Spain," vol. ii. pp. 210 et seq.

[39] Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 87.—Herrera notices this letter, written, he says, "con tanta humanidad, que parecia extraordinaria de lo que usavan con otros, y no sin razon, pues jamas nadie les hizo tal servicio," Indias Occidentales, lib. 5, cap. 1.

Among other instances of the queen's personal regard for Columbus, may be noticed her receiving his two sons, Diego and Fernando, as her own pages, on the death of Prince John, in whose service they had formerly been. (Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Doc. Dipl., 125.)

By an ordinance of 1593, we find Diego Colon made contino of the royal household, with an annual salary of 50,000 maravedies. Ibid., Doc. Dipl., no. 150.

[40] Peter Martyr, De Rebus Oceanicis, dec. 1, lib. 10.—Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 19, cap. 14.—Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 88.—Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., cap. 12.—Herrera, Indias Occidentals, lib. 5, cap. 2.



CHAPTER IX.

SPANISH COLONIAL POLICY.

Careful Provision for the Colonies.—License for Private Voyages.— Important Papal Concessions.—The Queen's Zeal for Conversion.—Immediate Profits from the Discoveries.—Their Moral Consequences.—Their Geographical Extent.

A consideration of the colonial policy pursued during Isabella's lifetime has been hitherto deferred to avoid breaking the narrative of Columbus's personal adventures. I shall now endeavor to present the reader with a brief outline of it, as far as can be collected from imperfect and scanty materials; for, however incomplete in itself, it becomes important as containing the germ of the gigantic system developed in later ages.

Ferdinand and Isabella manifested from the first an eager and enlightened curiosity in reference to their new acquisitions, constantly interrogating the admiral minutely as to their soil and climate, their various vegetable and mineral products, and especially the character of the uncivilized races who inhabited them. They paid the greatest deference to his suggestions, as before remarked, and liberally supplied the infant settlement with whatever could contribute to its nourishment and permanent prosperity. [1] Through their provident attention, in a very few years after its discovery, the island of Hispaniola was in possession of the most important domestic animals, as well as fruits and vegetables of the Old World, some of which have since continued to furnish the staple of a far more lucrative commerce than was ever anticipated from its gold mines. [2]

Emigration to the new countries was encouraged by the liberal tenor of the royal ordinances passed from time to time. The settlers in Hispaniola were to have their passage free; to be excused from taxes; to have the absolute property of such plantations on the island as they should engage to cultivate for four years; and they were furnished with a gratuitous supply of grain and stock for their farms. All exports and imports were exempted from duty; a striking contrast to the narrow policy of later ages. Five hundred persons, including scientific men and artisans of every description, were sent out and maintained at the expense of government. To provide for the greater security and quiet of the island, Ovando was authorized to gather the residents into towns, which were endowed with the privileges appertaining to similar corporations in the mother country; and a number of married men, with their families, were encouraged to establish themselves in them, with the view of giving greater solidity and permanence to the settlement. [3]

With these wise provisions were mingled others savoring too strongly of the illiberal spirit of the age. Such were those prohibiting Jews, Moors, or indeed any but Castilians, for whom the discovery was considered exclusively to have been made, from inhabiting, or even visiting, the New World. The government kept a most jealous eye upon what it regarded as its own peculiar perquisites, reserving to itself the exclusive possession of all minerals, dyewoods, and precious stones, that should be discovered; and although private persons were allowed to search for gold, they were subjected to the exorbitant tax of two-thirds, subsequently reduced to one-fifth, of all they should obtain, for the crown. [4]

The measure which contributed more effectually than any other, at this period, to the progress of discovery and colonization, was the license granted, under certain regulations, in 1495, for voyages undertaken by private individuals. No use was made of this permission until some years later, in 1499. The spirit of enterprise had flagged, and the nation had experienced something like disappointment on contrasting the meagre results of their own discoveries with the dazzling successes of the Portuguese, who had struck at once into the very heart of the jewelled east. The report of the admiral's third voyage, however, and the beautiful specimens of pearls which he sent home from the coast of Paria, revived the cupidity of the nation. Private adventurers now proposed to avail themselves of the license already granted, and to follow up the track of discovery on their own account. The government, drained by its late heavy expenditures, and jealous of the spirit of maritime adventure beginning to show itself in the other nations of Europe, [5] willingly acquiesced in a measure, which, while it opened a wide field of enterprise for its subjects, secured to itself all the substantial benefits of discovery, without any of the burdens.

The ships fitted out under the general license were required to reserve one-tenth of their tonnage for the crown, as well as two-thirds of all the gold, and ten per cent. of all other commodities which they should procure. The government promoted these expeditions by a bounty on all vessels of six hundred tons and upwards, engaged in them. [6]

With this encouragement the more wealthy merchants of Seville, Cadiz, and Palos, the old theatre of nautical enterprise, freighted and sent out little squadrons of three or four vessels each, which they intrusted to the experienced mariners, who had accompanied Columbus in his first voyage, or since followed in his footsteps. They held in general the same course pursued by the admiral on his last expedition, exploring the coasts of the great southern continent. Some of the adventurers returned with such rich freights of gold, pearls, and other precious commodities, as well compensated the fatigues and perils of the voyage. But the greater number were obliged to content themselves with the more enduring but barren honors of discovery. [7]

The active spirit of enterprise now awakened, and the more enlarged commercial relations with the new colonies, required a more perfect organization of the department for Indian affairs, the earliest vestiges of which have been already noticed in a preceding chapter. [8] By an ordinance dated at Alcala, January 20th, 1503, it was provided that a board should be established, consisting of three functionaries, with the titles of treasurer, factor, and comptroller. Their permanent residence was assigned in the old alcazar of Seville, where they were to meet every day for the despatch of business. The board was expected to make itself thoroughly acquainted with whatever concerned the colonies, and to afford the government all information, that could be obtained, affecting their interests and commercial prosperity. It was empowered to grant licenses under the regular conditions, to provide for the equipment of fleets, to determine their destination, and furnish them instructions on sailing. All merchandise for exportation was to be deposited in the alcazar, where the return cargoes were to be received, and contracts made for their sale. Similar authority was given to it over the trade with the Barbary coast and the Canary Islands. Its supervision was to extend in like manner over all vessels which might take their departure from the port of Cadiz, as well as from Seville. With these powers were combined others of a purely judicial character, authorizing them to take cognizance of questions arising out of particular voyages, and of the colonial trade in general. In this latter capacity they were to be assisted by the advice of two jurists, maintained by a regular salary from the government. [9]

Such were the extensive powers intrusted to the famous Casa de Contratacion, or House of Trade, on this its first definite organization; and, although its authority was subsequently somewhat circumscribed by the appellate jurisdiction of the Council of the Indies, it has always continued the great organ by which the commercial transactions with the colonies have been conducted and controlled.

The Spanish government, while thus securing to itself the more easy and exclusive management of the colonial trade, by confining it within one narrow channel, discovered the most admirable foresight in providing for its absolute supremacy in ecclesiastical affairs, where alone it could be contested. By a bull of Alexander the Sixth, dated November 16th, 1501, the sovereigns were empowered to receive all the tithes in the colonial dominions. [10] Another bull, of Pope Julius the Second, July 28th, 1508, granted them the right of collating to all benefices, of whatever description, in the colonies, subject only to the approbation of the Holy See. By these two concessions, the Spanish crown was placed at once at the head of the church in its transatlantic dominions, with the absolute disposal of all its dignities and emoluments. [11]

It has excited the admiration of more than one historian, that Ferdinand and Isabella, with their reverence for the Catholic church, should have had the courage to assume an attitude of such entire independence of its spiritual chief. [12] But whoever has studied their reign, will regard this measure as perfectly conformable to their habitual policy, which never suffered a zeal for religion, or a blind deference to the church, to compromise in any degree the independence of the crown. It is much more astonishing, that pontiffs could be found content to divest themselves of such important prerogatives. It was deviating widely from the subtle and tenacious spirit of their predecessors; and, as the consequences came to be more fully disclosed, furnished ample subject of regret to those who succeeded them.

Such is a brief summary of the principal regulations adopted by Ferdinand and Isabella for the administration of the colonies. Many of their peculiarities, including most of their defects, are to be referred to the peculiar circumstances under which the discovery of the New World was effected. Unlike the settlements on the comparatively sterile shores of North America, which were permitted to devise laws accommodated to their necessities, and to gather strength in the habitual exercise of political functions, the Spanish colonies were from the very first checked and controlled by the over-legislation of the parent country. The original project of discovery had been entered into with indefinite expectations of gain. The verification of Columbus's theory of the existence of land in the west gave popular credit to his conjecture, that that land was the far-famed Indies. The specimens of gold and other precious commodities found there, served to maintain the delusion. The Spanish government regarded the expedition as its own private adventure, to whose benefits it had exclusive pretensions. Hence those jealous regulations for securing to itself a monopoly of the most obvious sources of profit, the dyewoods and precious metals.

These impolitic provisions were relieved by others better suited to the permanent interests of the colony. Such was the bounty offered in various ways on the occupation and culture of land; the erection of municipalities; the right of inter-colonial traffic, and of exporting and importing merchandise of every description free of duty. [13] These and similar laws show that the government, far from regarding the colonies merely as a foreign acquisition to be sacrificed to the interests of the mother country, as at a later period, was disposed to legislate for them on more generous principles, as an integral portion of the monarchy.