only led them to a land where they
must either starve or do work fit for peasants, while he spent his time
in cruising among wild islands! The king of Portugal could now snap his
fingers at Ferdinand and Isabella, and if a doubt should have sometimes
crossed the minds of those chagrined sovereigns, as to whether this
plausible Genoese mariner might not, after all, be a humbug or a crazy
enthusiast, we can hardly wonder at it.

[Footnote 599: Major, _Prince Henry the Navigator_, pp.
398-401.]

[Sidenote: Fonseca's creature, Bobadilla.]

[Sidenote: Columbus in chains.]

The person sent to investigate the affairs of Hispaniola was Francisco
de Bobadilla, a knight commander of the order of Calatrava. He carried
several documents, one of them directing him to make inquiries and
punish offenders, another containing his appointment as governor, a
third commanding Columbus and his brothers to surrender to him all
fortresses and other public property.[600] The two latter papers were to
be used only in case of such grave misconduct proved against Columbus as
to justify his removal from the government. These papers were made out
in the spring of 1499, but Bobadilla was not sent out until July, 1500.
When he arrived at San Domingo on the 23d of August, the insurrection
had been suppressed; the Admiral and Bartholomew were bringing things
into order in distant parts of the island, while Diego was left in
command at San Domingo. Seven ringleaders had just been hanged, and five
more were in prison under sentence of death. If Bobadilla had not come
upon the scene this wholesome lesson might have worked some improvement
in affairs.[601] He destroyed its moral in a twinkling. The first day
after landing, he read aloud, at the church door, the paper directing
him to make inquiries and punish offenders; and forthwith demanded of
Diego Columbus that the condemned prisoners should be delivered up to
him. Diego declined to take so important a step until he could get
orders from the Admiral. Next day Bobadilla read his second and third
papers, proclaimed himself governor, called on Diego to surrender the
fortress and public buildings, and renewed his demand for the prisoners.
As Diego still hesitated to act before news of these proceedings could
be sent to his brother, Bobadilla broke into the fortress, took the
prisoners out, and presently set them free. All the rebellious spirits
in the colony were thus drawn to the sid