have been clearly shown that, from the very beginning, everything had
gone wrong in the colony. The Indians, once friendly, were now bitter
against the Spaniards. The colonists were a bad lot, but Columbus
himself had examined and accepted most of them before the ships left
Spain.

If mistakes were committed while he was absent exploring Cuba, they were
made by his brothers and by those whom he himself had selected to rule
in his absence. All of this evidence would have been against Columbus,
who in consequence would have been deposed as governor and sent home to
answer Bobadilla's charges before a royal court of inquiry. Arriving as
a man disgraced after a fair trial, nobody's sympathies would have been
stirred. It was precisely because Bobadilla had acted like a brute
instead of like a wise judge that everybody denounced him and pitied his
victim.

Considering all this, and considering that Columbus himself had admitted
his "inexperience in government" to the queen, it is astonishing to
learn that he was deeply hurt because she did not reinstate him
instantly as ruler of the island! Experience had taught the great
discoverer but little. At a moment when he should have fallen on his
knees in thankfulness because he would never again have to be
responsible for that colony of vicious men, he instead felt hurt! He
wanted to return and start the whole sorry business over again.
Moreover, he protested, as indeed he had been doing for years, because
other navigators were imploring the monarchs to break their contract
giving _him_ a monopoly of western exploration, and to allow them
to undertake voyages, asking no government assistance whatsoever. Now
was the time for him to say, "It is to Spain's interest that she send as
many explorers as possible over to these new lands, in order that we may