Nicholas de Ovando Appointed to Supersede Bobadilla.

[1501.]



The numerous discoveries briefly noticed in the preceding chapter had
produced a powerful effect upon the mind of Ferdinand. His ambition, his
avarice, and his jealousy were equally inflamed. He beheld boundless
regions, teeming with all kinds of riches, daily opening before the
enterprises of his subjects; but he beheld at the same time other nations
launching forth into competition, emulous for a share of the golden world
which he was eager to monopolize. The expeditions of the English, and the
accidental discovery of the Brazils by the Portuguese, caused him much
uneasiness. To secure his possession of the continent, he determined to
establish local governments or commands, in the most important places, all
to be subject to a general government, established at San Domingo, which
was to be the metropolis.

With these considerations, the government, heretofore granted to Columbus,
had risen vastly in importance; and while the restitution of it was the
more desirable in his eyes, it became more and more a matter of repugnance
to the selfish and jealous monarch. He had long repented having vested
such great powers and prerogatives in any subject, particularly in a
foreigner. At the time of granting them, he had no anticipation of such
boundless countries to be placed under his command. He appeared almost to
consider himself outwitted by Columbus in the arrangement; and every
succeeding discovery, instead of increasing his grateful sense of the
obligation, only made him repine the more at the growing magnitude of the
reward. At length, however, the affair of Bobadilla had effected a