added
to the area explored by the Spaniards in Columbus's lifetime. Columbus
was bitterly jealous that any one should be admitted to the western
ocean, which he regarded as his special preserve, except under his
supreme authority; and he is reported to have said that once the way to
the West had been pointed out "even the very tailors turned explorers."
There, surely, spoke the long dormant woolweaver in him.

The commission given to Aguado was very brief, and so vaguely worded
that it might mean much or little, according to the discretion of the
commissioner and the necessities of the case as viewed by him. "We send
to you Juan Aguada, our Groom of the Chambers, who will speak to you on
our part. We command you to give him faith and credit." A letter was
also sent to Columbus in which he was instructed to reduce the number of
people dependent on the colony to five hundred instead of a thousand; and
the control of the mines was entrusted to one Pablo Belvis, who was sent
out as chief metallurgist. As for the slaves that Columbus had sent
home, Isabella forbade their sale until inquiry could be made into the
condition of their capture, and the fine moral point involved was
entrusted to the ecclesiastical authorities for examination and solution.
Poor Christopher, knowing as he did that five hundred heretics were being
burned every year by the Grand Inquisitor, had not expected this
hair-splitting over the fate of heathens who had rebelled against Spanish
authority; and it caused him some distress when he heard of it. The
theologians, however, proved equal to the occasion, and the slaves were
duly sold in Seville market.

Aguado sailed from Cadiz at the end of August 1495, and reached Espanola
in October. James Columbus (who does not as yet seem to be in very great
demand anywhere, and who doubtless conceals behind his grave visage much
honest amazement at the amount of life that he is seeing) returned with
him. Aguado, on arriving at Isabella, found that Columbus was absent
establishing forts in the interior of the island, Bartholomew being left
in charge at Isabella.

Aguado, who had apparently been found faithful in small matters, was
found wanting in his use of the authority that had been entrusted to him.
It seems to have turned his head; for instead of beginning quietly to
investigate the affairs of the colony as he had been commanded to do he
took over from Bartholomew the actual government, and interp