assembled all the principal people of the district around him on the day before it happened; and, after reproaching them for their fickleness in withdrawing their affection and assistance from men whom they had lately revered, he told them that the Spaniards were servants of the Great Spirit who dwells in heaven, who made and governs the world; that he, offended at their refusing to support persons who were the objects of his peculiar care, was preparing to punish this crime with exemplary severity, and that very night the moon should withhold her light, and appear of a bloody hue, as a sign of divine wrath and of the vengeance ready to fall on them. To this prediction some had listened with carelessness; others with credulous astonishment. But when the moon began gradually to be darkened, and at length appeared of a red colour, all were struck with terror. They ran with consternation to their houses, and, returning instantly to Columbus, loaded with provisions, threw them at his feet, conjuring him to intercede with the Great Spirit to avert the destruction with which they were threatened. Columbus promised. to comply with their desire; the eclipse went off, the moon recovered its splendour; and from that day the Spaniards were not only furnished profusely with provisions, but the natives with superstitious attention avoided every thing that could give them offence.

During these transactions the mutineers had made many fruitless attempts to pass over to Hispaniola in the canoes which they had seized. At length they appeared in open rebellion against their commander. His brother marched against them, killed some, and took their captain prisoner. The rest submitted, and bound themselves by the most solemn

E 3

solemn oaths to obey all the commands of Columbus. Hardly was tranquillity re-established when ships appeared from Hispaniola to convey them thither, after having been exposed to all kinds of misery for more than a year.

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prepara

Soon after his arrival he made tions to sail for Europe. Disasters simi1504. lar to those which had accompanied him through life, continued to pursue him to the end of his career. At length, however, he reached with difficulty the port of St. Lucar, in Andalusia. There he received the account of the death of Isabella, in whose justice, humanity, and regard, he confided as his last resource. None now remained to redress his wrongs, or to reward his services. To Ferdinand he applied for remuneration; but from him he obtained nought but fair words and unmeaning promises. Disgusted with the ingratitude of a monarch whom he had served with fidelity and success, exhausted with the fatigues and hardships which he had endured, and broken with the infirmities which these had brought upon him,

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Columbus ended his life on the 20th of

1506. May, in the fifty-ninth year of his age. He died with a composure of mind suitable to the magnanimity which had ever distinguished his character, and with sentiments of piety becoming that supreme respect for religion which he manifested in every occurrence of his life.

CHAP.

CHAP. II.

State of the Colony in Hispaniola. Policy of the Court of Spain. Attempts made by the Indians to regain their Liberty. Cruelty of the Spaniards. Ovando's wise Conduct. Cuba found to be an Island. Don Diego Columbus lays claim to and obtains his Rights. Attempts to colonize America. The Reception which the Spaniards met with. Settle on the Gulf of Darien. Conquest of Cuba. Conduct and cruel Death of Hatuey. Discovery of Florida. Of the South Sea. Great Expectations formed of it. Noble Conduct and shameful Death of Balboa. Missionaries sent out.

Their Zeal. Dominicans and Franciscans take different Sides. Conduct of Las Casas. Negroes imported. Origin of the African Slave Trade. Las Casas's Idea of a new Colony. Attempted. Unsuccessful. Discoveries towards the West. Yucatan. Reception given to the Spaniards there. Campeachy. Preparations for invading New Spain.

WHILE Columbas was employed in his last

voyage, the colony in Hispaniola gradually acquired the form of a regular and prosperous society. Isabella had prohibited the Spaniards from compelling the Indians to work against their will. This retarded for a time the progress of improvement. The Spaniards had not a sufficient number of hands either to work the mines or cultivate the soil. Several of the first colonists, who had been accustomed to the service of the Indians, quitted the island when deprived of those instru

ments,

ments, without which they knew not how to carry on any operation. Many of the new settlers who came over with Ovando, Columbus's successor, shortly died of distempers peculiar to the climate. At the same time, the exacting one half of the product of the mines, as the royal share, was found to be a demand so exorbitant, that no adventurers would engage to work them upon such terms. In order to save the colony from ruin, Ovando ventured to relax the rigour of the royal edicts. He made a new distribution 1505. of the Indians among the Spaniards, and compelled them to labour, for a stated time, in digging the mines, or in cultivating the ground. He reduced the royal share of the gold found in the mines from the half to the third part, and soon after lowered it to a fifth; at which it long remained.

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The Indians felt the yoke of bondage to be so galling, that they made many attempts to vindicate their liberty. This the Spaniards considered a rebellion, and took arms in order to reduce them t subjection. They considered them not as men fighting in defence of their rights, but as slaves who ha revolted against their masters. Their caziques when taken, were condemned, like the leaders banditti, to the most cruel and ignominious pu nishments. Overawed and humbled by the atro cious treatment of their princes and nobles, wh were objects of their highest reverence, the peopl in all the provinces of Hispaniola submitted, withou further resistance, to the Spanish yoke. Upon th death of Isabella, all the regulations tending to m tigate the rigour of their servitude were forgotte Ovando, without any restraint, distributed Indian

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among his friends in the island. Ferdinand, to whom the queen had left by will one 1506. half of the revenue arising from the settlements in the New World, conferred grants of a similar nature upon his courtiers, as the least expensive mode of rewarding their services. They farmed out the Indians, of whom they were rendered proprietors; and that wretched people, being compelled to labour in order to satisfy the rapacity of both, the exactions of their oppressors no longer knew any bounds. During several years the gold brought into the royal smelting-houses in Hispaniola amounted annually to more than one hundred thousand pounds. Vast fortunes were created, of a sudden, by some; others dissipated in ostentatious profusion what they acquired with facility. Dazzled by both, new adventurers crowded to America, with the most eager impatience, to share in those treasures which had enriched their countrymen, and the colòny continued to increase.

Ovando governed the Spaniards with wisdom and justice. He established equal laws, and, by executing them with impartiality, accustomed the people of the colony to reverence them. He founded several new towns, and endeavoured to turn the attention of his countrymen to some branch of industry more useful than that of searching for gold in the mines. Some slips of the sugar-cane having been brought from the Canary islands by way of experiment, they were found to thrive with such increase, that the cultivation of them became an object of commerce. Extensive plantations were begun, sugar-works erected, and in a few years the manufacture of this commodity was the great occupation of the inhabitants of Hispaniola, and the most considerable source of their wealth.

The