free Indians among the colonists, afterwards generally adopted, and
shamefully abused, throughout the Spanish colonies: a source of
intolerable hardships and oppressions to the unhappy natives, and which
greatly contributed to exterminate them from the island of Hispaniola.[48]
Columbus considered the island in the light of a conquered country, and
arrogated to himself all the rights of a conqueror, in the name of the
sovereigns for whom he fought. Of course all his companions in the
enterprise were entitled to take part in the acquired territory, and to
establish themselves there as feudal lords, reducing the natives to the
condition of villains or vassals. [49] This was an arrangement widely
different from his original intention of treating the natives with
kindness, as peaceful subjects of the crown. But all his plans had been
subverted, and his present measures forced upon him by the exigency of
the times, and the violence of lawless men. He appointed a captain with
an armed band, as a kind of police, with orders to range the provinces;
oblige the Indians to pay their tributes; watch over the conduct of the
colonists; and check the least appearance of mutiny or insurrection. [50]

Having sought and obtained such ample provisions for his followers, Roldan
was not more modest in making demands for himself. He claimed certain
lands in the vicinity of Isabella, as having belonged to him before his
rebellion; also a royal farm, called La Esperanza, situated on the Vega,
and devoted to the rearing of poultry. These the admiral granted him, with
permission to employ, in the cultivation of the farm, the subjects of the
cacique whose ears had been cut off by Alonzo de Ojeda in his first
military expedition into the Vega. Roldan received also grants of land in
Xaragua, and a variety of live-stock from the cattle and other animals
belonging to the crown. These grants were made to him provisionally, until
the pleasure of the sovereigns should be known; [51] for Columbus yet
trusted, that when they should understand the manner in which these