almost be called, and Columbus, was at last, after two years'
negotiation, brought to a close. Roldan kept his chief-justiceship; and
his friends received lands and slaves. It brings to mind the conclusion of
many a long war in the old world, in which two great powers have been
contending against each other, with several small powers on each side, the
latter being either ruined in the course of the war, or sacrificed at the
end. The admiral gave repartimientos to those followers of Roldan who
chose to stay in the island, which were constituted in the following
manner. The admiral placed under such a caciqne so many thousand matas
(shoots of the cazabi), or, which came to the same thing, so many thousand
montones (small mounds a foot and a half high, and ten or twelve feet
round, on each of which a cazabi shoot was planted); and Columbus then
ordered that the cacique or his people should till these lands for
whomsoever they were assigned to. The repartimiento had now grown to its
second state--not lands only, but lands and the tillage of them. We shall
yet find that there is a further step in this matter, before the
repartimiento assumes its utmost development. It seems, too, that in
addition to these repartimientos, Columbus gave slaves to those partizans
of Roldan who stayed in the island. Others of Roldan's followers, fifteen
in number, chose to return to Spain; they received a certain number of
slaves, some one, some two, some three; and the admiral sent them home in
two vessels which left the port of St. Domingo at the beginning of
October, 1499.

THE QUEEN'S ANGER; PARTIAL RELEASE OF SLAVES.

On the arrival in Spain of these vessels, the Queen was in the highest
degree angered by the above proceedings, and said that the admiral had
received no authority from her to give her vassals to anyone. She
accordingly commanded proclamation to be made at Seville, Granada, and
other places, that all persons who were in possession of Indians, given to
them by the admiral, should, under pain of death, send those Indians back
to Hispaniola, "and that particularly they should send back those Indians,
and not the others who had been brought before, because she was informed
that the others had been taken in just war." The former part of this
proclamation has been frequently alluded to, and no doubt it deserves much
praise; but from the latter part it is clear that there were some Indians
who could justly, according to Queen Is