and the machinations of person disaffected to the royal service. Fourthly,
that he should be reinstated in his office of alcalde mayor, or chief
judge. [44]

These were hard and insolent conditions to commence with, but they were
granted. Roldan then went on shore, and communicated them to his
companions. At the end of the two days the insurgents sent their
capitulations, drawn up in form, and couched in arrogant language,
including all the stipulations granted at Fort Conception, with those
recently demanded by Roldan, and concluding with one, more insolent than
all the rest, namely, that if the admiral should fail in the fulfillment
of any of these articles, they should have a right to assemble together,
and compel his performance of them by force, or by any other means they
might think proper. [45] The conspirators thus sought not merely
exculpation of the past, but a pretext for future rebellion.

The mind grows wearied and impatient with recording, and the heart of the
generous reader must burn with indignation at perusing, this protracted
and ineffectual struggle of a man of the exalted merits and matchless
services of Columbus, in the toils of such miscreants. Surrounded by doubt
and danger; a foreigner among a jealous people; an unpopular commander in
a mutinous island; distrusted and slighted by the government he was
seeking to serve; and creating suspicion by his very services; he knew not
where to look for faithful advice, efficient aid, or candid judgment. The
very ground on which he stood seemed giving way under him, for he was told
of seditious symptoms among his own people. Seeing the impunity with which
the rebels rioted in the possession of one of the finest parts of the
island, they began to talk among themselves of following their example, of
abandoning the standard of the admiral, and seizing upon the province of
Higuey, at the eastern extremity of the island, which was said to contain