of this."

This is rather a confused answer, as often happens, when a proposition
from a valued friend or servant is disapproved of, but has to be rejected
kindly. The Catholic sovereigns would have been very glad to have received
some money from the Indies: money was always welcome to King Ferdinand;
the purchase of wine, seeds, and cattle for the colonists had hitherto
proved anything but a profitable outlay; the prospect of conversion was
probably dear to the hearts of both these princes, certainly to one of
them: but still this proposition for the establishment of slavery was
wisely and magnanimously set aside.


FORT ST. THOMAS FOUNDED.

While Antonio de Torres was absent from Hispaniola, laying these
propositions before Los Reyes, Columbus was busy about the affairs of the
colony, which were in a most distracted state. Scant fare and hard work
were having their effect; sickness pervaded the whole armament; and men of
all ranks and stations, hidalgoes, people of the court and ecclesiastics,
were obliged to labour manually under regulations strictly enforced. The
rage and vexation of these men, many of whom had come out with the notion
of finding gold ready for them on the sea shore, may be imagined; and
complaints of the admiral's harsh way of dealing with those under him
(probably no harsher than was absolutely necessary to save them), now took
their rise, and pursued him ever after to his ruin. A mutiny, headed by
Bernal Diaz, a man high in authority, was detected and quelled before the
mutineers could effect their intention of seizing the ships. Diaz was sent
for trial to Spain. The colonists, however, were somewhat cheered after a
time by hearing of gold mines, and seeing specimens of ore brought from