obtain his rights, but
could never procure any satisfaction, being always put off with fair words
and empty promises. Being at length wearied with ineffectual applications
for redress, he petitioned the king to allow his demands to be decided
upon by the courts of law; and as that could hardly be denied with any
decency, it was granted. This suit, as may well be supposed, was tedious
and troublesome; yet at length he obtained a clear decision in his favour,
and was re-established by the judges in all those rights which had been
granted to his father; in which he assuredly obtained nothing more than a
judicial recognition of a clear right which ought never to have been
disputed. To strengthen his interest at court, he married _Donna Maria_,
daughter to _Don Ferdinand de Toledo_, brother to the duke of _Alva_, and
cousin to the king; thus allying himself with one of the most illustrious
families in Spain. By the interest of his wifes relations, he at last
obtained the government of Hispaniola, in which he superseded Obando, the
great enemy of his father; but he had only the title of governor, not of
viceroy, which was his just and undoubted right. Don James Columbus went
out to his government of Hispaniola in 1508, two years after the decease
of his father, accompanied by his brother Don Ferdinand, and his uncles
Bartholomew and James, with many young Spanish noblemen. His lady was
likewise attended by several young ladies of good families; so that by
these noble attendants, the lustre of the new colony was restored and
augmented. His power in the government was no way greater than that which
had been confided to his predecessor, and was soon afterwards considerably
circumscribed by the establishment of a new court at St Domingo, under the
title of the _Royal Audience_, to which appeals were allowed from all parts
of the Spanish dominions in the New World.

While Ponce de Leon was occupied in the discovery of Porto Rico, Don James
Columbus came out to assume the government of Hispaniola in the room of
Obando, bringing with him from Spain a governor for the island of Porto
Rico. But Ponce de Leon, who had made the first settlement on that island,
disputed this new appointment; on which the young admiral set them both
aside, and appointed one Michael Cerron to the government, with Michael
Diaz as his lieutenant. De Leon, however, procured a new commission from
Spain, through the interest of his friend Obando with which he we