and admiral were to be taken away from him. If this were so, they were
going to look out for themselves, they said. They would no longer obey
the commands of the Admiral's brothers, Bartholomew and Diego, whom he
had left in charge.

So they rose in rebellion, and made things so uncomfortable for the two
brothers that the colony was soon full of strife and quarreling.

The leader of this revolt was one of the chief men in the colony. His
name was Roldan. When Columbus and Bartholomew sailed into the harbor
of Santo Domingo, on the thirtieth of August, they found that Roldan and
his followers had set up a camp for themselves in another part of the
island, and given out that they were determined never to have anything
more to do with the three Columbus brothers.

This rebellion weakened the colony dreadfully. Things looked desperate;
so desperate indeed that Columbus, after thinking it all over, thought
that the only way to do was to seem to give in to Roldan and patch
up some sort of an agreement by which they could all live together in
peace. But all the same, he said, I will complain to the king and have
this rebel Roldan punished.

So the Admiral wrote Roldan a letter in which he offered to forgive
and forget all that he had done if he would come back and help make the
colony strong and united again. Roldan agreed to do this, if he could
have the same position he held before, and if Columbus would see that
his followers had all the land they wanted. Columbus agreed to this and
also gave the rebels permission to use the poor natives as slaves on
their lands. So the trouble seemed to be over for a while, and Columbus
sent two of his ships to Spain with letters to the king and queen. But