and gold, and they are useful also in those other marauding expeditions
designed to replenish the seraglio that he has established in his camp;
and if they like to do a little marauding and woman-stealing on their own
account, it is no affair of his, and may keep the devils in a good
temper. Thus Don Pedro Margarite to himself.

The peaceable and gentle natives soon began to resent these gross doings.
To robbery succeeded outrage, and to outrage murder--all three committed
in the very houses of the natives; and they began to murmur, to withhold
that goodwill which the Spaniards had so sorely tried, and to develop a
threatening attitude that was soon communicated to the natives in the
vicinity of Isabella, and came under the notice of James Columbus and his
council. Grave, bookish, wool-weaving young James, not used to military
affairs, and not at all comfortable in his command, can think of no other
expedient than--to write a letter to Margarite remonstrating with him for
his licentious excesses and reminding him of the Admiral's instructions,
which were being neglected.

Margarite receives the letter and reads it with a contemptuous laugh. He
is not going to be ordered about by a family of Italian wool-weavers, and
the only change in his conduct is that he becomes more and more careless
and impudent, extending the area of his lawless operations, and making
frequent visits to Isabella itself, swaggering under the very nose of
solemn James, and soon deep in consultation with Friar Buil.

At this moment, that is to say very soon after the departure of
Christopher on his voyage to Cuba and Jamaica, three ships dropped anchor
in the Bay of Isabella. They were laden with the much-needed supplies
from Spain, and had been sent out under the command of Bartholomew
Columbus. It will be remembered that when Christopher reached Spain
after his first voyage one of his first cares had been to write to
Bartholomew, asking him to join him. The letter, doubtless after many
wanderings, had found Bartholomew in France at the court of Charles
VIII., by whom he was held in some esteem; in fact it was Charles who
provided him with the necessary money for his journey to Spain, for
Bartholomew had not greatly prospered, in spite of his voyage with Diaz
to the Cape of Good Hope and of his having been in England making
exploration proposals at the court of Henry VII. He had arrived in Spain
after Columbus had sailed again, and had pre