order to enrich the pioneers.

As time went on the natives were ground down more and more, and set to
tasks for which they were temperamentally quite unsuited. Death became
rife among their ranks, and the hardships endured drove them to open
rebellion. The armour and weapons of the Spaniards rendered any attempts
of the kind abortive, and massacres and torturing completed the
enslaving process of the wretched race.

Communication between the New and Old World was at that time, of course,
slow and precarious in the extreme. Nevertheless, tidings of what was
going on in the island of Hispaniola at length found their way to the
ears of Ferdinand and Isabella. To these were added a number of
reports, for the most part fabricated by Columbus's enemies, of the
tyranny of the Admiral and of his ill-treatment of Spaniards of good
birth. Columbus, leaving his brother Bartholomew in charge of the new
dominions, returned to Spain, confronted his enemies, and was able to
refute the accusations brought against him. As regards the allegations
of ill-treatment of the Spaniards this was easily enough disproved; as
regards the Indians the matter was not so simple, for, to do them
justice, Ferdinand and Isabella were keenly anxious to prevent any
tyranny or ill-treatment of their new and remote subjects.

Columbus, having regained the confidence of his Sovereigns, started on
his third voyage in the beginning of 1496. On this occasion he
discovered Trinidad, coasted along the borders of Guiana, and saw for
the first time the Islands of Cubagua and Margarita. In Haiti the
Admiral found a discontented community. His two brothers, Bartholomew
and Diego, had become unpopular with the Spaniards, who were chafing
beneath their authority. The arrival of Columbus caused a temporary lull