seized upon the government before he had investigated the conduct of
Columbus. He continued his career in the same spirit; acting as if the
case had been prejudged in Spain, and he had been sent out merely to
degrade the admiral from his employments, not to ascertain the manner in
which he had fulfilled them. He took up his residence in the house of
Columbus, seized upon his arms, gold, plate, jewels, horses, together with
his letters, and various manuscripts, both public and private, even to his
most secret papers. He gave no account of the property thus seized; and
which he no doubt considered already confiscated to the crown, excepting
that he paid out of it the wages of those to whom the admiral was in
arrears. [74] To increase his favor with the people, he proclaimed, on the
second day of his assumption of power, a general license for the term of
twenty years, to seek for gold, paying merely one eleventh to government,
instead of a third as heretofore. At the same time, he spoke in the most
disrespectful and unqualified terms of Columbus, saying that he was
empowered to send him home in chains, and that neither he nor any of his
lineage would ever again be permitted to govern in the island. [75]




Chapter III.

Columbus Summoned to Appear before Bobadilla.

[1500.]



When the tidings reached Columbus at Fort Conception of the high-handed