proceedings of Bobadilla, he considered them the unauthorized acts of some
rash adventurer like Ojeda. Since government had apparently thrown open
the door to private enterprise, he might expect to have his path
continually crossed, and his jurisdiction infringed by bold intermeddlers,
feigning or fancying themselves authorized to interfere in the affairs of
the colony. Since the departure of Ojeda another squadron had touched upon
the coast, and produced a transient alarm, being an expedition under one
of the Pinzons, licensed by the sovereigns to make discoveries. There had
also been a rumor of another squadron hovering about the island, which
proved, however, to be unfounded. [76]

The conduct of Bobadilla bore all the appearance of a lawless usurpation
of some intruder of the kind. He had possessed himself forcibly of the
fortress, and consequently of the town. He had issued extravagant licenses
injurious to the government, and apparently intended only to make
partisans among the people; and had threatened to throw Columbus himself
in irons. That this man could really be sanctioned by government, in such
intemperate measures, was repugnant to belief. The admiral's consciousness
of his own services, the repeated assurances he had received of high
consideration on the part of the sovereigns, and the perpetual
prerogatives granted to him under their hand and seal, with all the
solemnity that a compact could possess, all forbade him to consider the
transactions at San Domingo otherwise than as outrages on his authority by
some daring or misguided individual.

To be nearer to San Domingo, and obtain more correct information, he
proceeded to Bonao, which was now beginning to assume the appearance of a
settlement, several Spaniards having erected houses there, and cultivated
the adjacent country. He had scarcely reached the place, when an alcalde,
bearing a staff of office, arrived there from San Domingo, proclaiming the