temporary exclusion of Columbus from his--high office, and that without
any odium to the crown, and the wary monarch, secretly determined that the
door thus closed between him and his dignities should never again be
opened.

Perhaps Ferdinand may really have entertained doubts as to the innocence
of Columbus, with respect to the various charges made against him. He may
have doubted also the sincerity of his loyalty, being a stranger, when he
should find himself strong in his command, at a great distance from the
parent country, with immense and opulent regions under his control.
Columbus, himself, in his letters, alludes to reports circulated by his
enemies, that he intended either to set up an independent sovereignty, or
to deliver his discoveries into the hands of other potentates; and he
appears to fear that these slanders might have made some impression on the
mind of Ferdinand. But there was one other consideration which had no less
force with the monarch in withholding this great act of justice--Columbus
was no longer indispensable to him. He had made his great discovery; he
had struck out the route to the New World, and now any one could follow
it. A number of able navigators had sprung up under his auspices, and
acquired experience in his voyages. They were daily besieging the throne
with offers to fit out expeditions at their own cost, and to yield a share
of the profits to the crown. Why should he, therefore, confer princely
dignities and prerogatives for that which men were daily offering to
perform gratuitously?

Such, from his after conduct, appears to have been the jealous and selfish
policy which actuated Ferdinand in forbearing to reinstate Columbus in
those dignities and privileges so solemnly granted to him by treaty, and
which it was acknowledged he had never forfeited by misconduct.