circles for the performance of minor official duties, but no very popular
favourite; honest according to his lights--lights turned rather low and
dim, as was often the case in those days. A narrow-minded man also,
without sympathy or imagination, capable of cruelty; a tough,
stiff-necked stock of a man, fit to deal with Bobadilla perhaps, but
hardly fit to deal with the colony. Spain in those days was not a
nursery of administration. Of all the people who were sent out
successively to govern Espanola and supersede one another, the only one
who really seems to have had the necessary natural ability, had he but
been given the power, was Bartholomew Columbus; but unfortunately things
were in such a state that the very name of Columbus was enough to bar a
man from acceptance as a governor of Espanola.

It was not for any lack of powers and equipment that this procession of
governors failed in their duties. We have seen with what authority
Bobadilia had been entrusted; and Ovando had even greater advantages.
The instructions he received showed that the needs of the new colonies
were understood by Ferdinand and Isabella, if by no one else. Ovando was
not merely appointed Governor of Espanola but of the whole of the new
territory discovered in the west, his seat of government being San
Domingo. He was given the necessary free hand in the matters of
punishment, confiscation, and allotment of lands. He was to revoke the
orders which had been made by Bobadilla reducing the proportion of gold
payable to the Crown, and was empowered to take over one-third of the.
gold that was stored on the island, and one-half of what might be found
in the future. The Crown was to have a monopoly of all trade, and
ordinary supplies were only to be procured through the Crown agent.
On the other hand, the natives were to be released from slavery, and
although forced to work in the mines, were to be paid for their labour
--a distinction which in the working out did not produce much difference.