Orinoco. He then coasted along westward, making other discoveries for 200 leagues, to Cape Vela, from which he crossed over to Hispaniola, to recruit his health. The dissensions which arose here, the calumnies of miscreants who had been shipped off to Spain, countenanced as they were by envious courtiers at home, the unproductiveness of the new settlement, and regret at having vested such high powers in a subject and a foreigner, who could now be dispensed with, induced Ferdinand, in July 1500, to dispatch Francisco de Bovadilla, a knight of Calatrava, to inquire into the conduct of Columbus, with orders, in case he found the charge of maladministration proved, to supersede him, and assume the office of governor of Hispaniola. The consequence of this was, that Columbus was sent to Spain in chains. Vallejo, the officer who had him in charge, and Martin, the master of the caravel, (or light barque, no better than our river and coasting craft,) would have taken his chains off; but Columbus proudly said, “I will wear them till the king orders otherwise, and will preserve them as memorials of his gratitude.” He hung them up in his cabinet, and requested that they should be buried in his grave. The general burst of indignation at Cadiz, which was echoed throughout Spain on the arrival of Columbus in fetters, compelled Ferdinand himself to disclaim all knowledge of the shameful transaction. But still the king kept Columbus in attendance for nine months, wasting his time in fruitless solicitations for redress; and at last appointed Nicholas Orando, governor of Hispaniola, in his place.
With restricted powers and a broken frame,
