of Alcantara, he would never allow himself to be addressed by the title of
respect attached to it. [101] Such is the picture drawn of him by
historians; but his conduct in several important instances is in direct
contradiction to it. He appears to have been plausible and subtle, as well
as fluent and courteous; his humility concealed a great love of command,
and in his transactions with Columbus he was certainly both ungenerous and
unjust.

The various arrangements to be made, according to the new plan of colonial
government, delayed for some time the departure of Ovando. In the
meantime, every arrival brought intelligence of the disastrous state of
the island, under the mal-administration of Bobadilla. He had commenced
his career by an opposite policy to that of Columbus. Imagining that
rigorous rule had been the rock on which his predecessors had split, he
sought to conciliate the public by all kinds of indulgence. Having at the
very outset relaxed the reins of justice and morality, he lost all command
over the community; and such disorder and licentiousness ensued, that
many, even of the opponents of Columbus, looked back with regret upon the
strict but wholesome rule of himself and the Adelantado.

Bobadilla was not so much a bad as an imprudent and a weak man. He had not
considered the dangerous excesses to which his policy would lead. Rash in
grasping authority, he was feeble and temporizing in the exercise of it:
he could not look beyond the present exigency. One dangerous indulgence
granted to the colonists called for another; each was ceded in its turn,
and thus he went on from error to error,--showing that in government there
is as much danger to be apprehended from a weak as from a bad man.

He had sold the farms and estates of the crown at low prices, observing
that it was not the wish of the monarchs to enrich themselves by them, but