the king endeavored to expiate the offence by censuring and recalling
Bovadilla, yet we may judge of his sincerity from his appointing Nicholas
de Ovando, another well known enemy of Columbus, to succeed in the
government; and from his ever after refusing to reinstate Columbus, or to
fulfil any of the conditions on which the discoveries had been undertaken.

After two years of solicitation for this or some other employment, he
at length obtained a squadron of four small vessels to attempt new
discoveries. He then set out, with the enthusiasm of a young adventurer, in
quest of what was always his favorite object, a passage into the South Sea,
by which he might sail to India. He touched at Hispaniola, where Ovando the
governor refused him admittance on shore, even to take shelter during
a hurricane, the prognostics of which his experience had taught him to
discern. By putting into a creek he rode out the storm, and then bore away
for the continent. He spent several months, the most boisterous of the
year, in exploring the coast round the gulph of Mexico, in hopes of finding
the intended navigation to India. At length he was shipwrecked, and driven
ashore on the island of Jamaica.

His cup of calamities seemed now to be full. He was cast upon an island of
savages, without provisions, without a vessel, and thirty leagues from any
Spanish settlement. But the greatest physical misfortunes are capable of
being embittered by the insults of our fellow creatures. A few of his
companions generously offered, in two Indian canoes, to attempt a voyage to
Hispaniola, in hopes of obtaining a vessel for the relief of the unhappy
crew. After suffering every extremity of danger and fatigue, they arrived
at the Spanish colony in ten days. Ovando, excited by personal malice
against Columbus, detained these messengers for eight months, and then
despatched a vessel to Jamaica to spy out the condition of Columbus and
his crew, with positive instructions to the captain not to afford them any