Columbus_ The Four Voyages - Laurence Bergreen [163]
Of this insult, Columbus snarled, “All that he found there, he appropriated for himself; all well and good, perhaps he had need of it; a pirate never treated a merchant so.” His personal papers had been confiscated, and those that would have helped him defend himself in Spain, “he has most carefully concealed.” While this madman pilfered Columbus’s personal effects, the Admiral himself was exposing himself to danger in the interior and at Xaraguá, pacifying rebellions. Even if he overstated his heroism, the Admiral had a point: Bobadilla had usurped the Admiral just as he was bringing a semblance of order to Hispaniola.
To win over the handful of Spaniards still loyal to Columbus, Bobadilla announced that “he had come to pay everyone, even those who had not served properly up to that day.” The Admiral looked on in amazement as this bureaucrat usurped his authority and reduced him to a nonperson. “He announced he was to send me back in chains, and my brothers also; and that I was never to return,” Columbus recalled. “All this happened the very day after he arrived,” with Columbus in the interior.
Bristling with officialdom, Bobadilla had brought letters signed by the Sovereigns that enabled him to do whatever he wished in their names. “To me he sent neither letter nor messenger, nor has he done so to this day,” Columbus lamented. A situation so awful “I could not recall even in my dreams,” he said. After all he had done for the Sovereigns over the course of three voyages, to be treated this way was beyond imagination and reason. Maybe Ojeda was behind it, maybe he had formed a pact with Bobadilla to dishonor Columbus. Meanwhile, the Sovereigns who owed him so much remained mute.
He unburdened himself in a letter to Doña Juana de la Torre, who enjoyed a close friendship with the queen, and served as conduit as well as confidante. “Consider, Your Grace, what one who held my position was to think!” the Admiral exclaimed to her. “Honors and favors for those who sought to usurp Their Majesties’ authority and who have done so much harm and damage; humiliation for one who has sustained it through many perils.” He admitted to mistakes in the founding of the Enterprise of the Indies, yet “my errors have not been committed with intention to do ill, and I believe Their Highnesses will credit me when I say so.” He had, he pleaded, “fallen into error innocently and under compulsion,” unlike the evil Bobadilla, who had plotted to defraud Columbus and the Sovereigns. “Maintaining justice and extending the realm of Their Highnesses to this day has brought me to the depths.” But then, inadvertently damning his administrations, he reported that Spaniards bought and sold Indian women for outrageously high prices, enough to buy a farm at home, “and this is very common, and there are now many merchants who go seeking for girls; nine or ten are now for sale; for women of all ages, there is a good price to be had.” The situation had become so dire that “if Their Highnesses would command a general inquiry to be made there, I declare to you that they would find it a great marvel that the island has not been swallowed up.”
As Columbus retreated into paranoia, Bobadilla established his regime. To begin, he suspended the demoralizing tribute system for a period of twenty years and summoned Columbus to appear before him immediately, as ordered by the Sovereigns. Bobadilla established the legitimacy of this command by conveying a stale royal order to Columbus from the Sovereigns.
Don Christopher Columbus, our Admiral of the Ocean Sea.
We have sent the Knight Francisco de Bobadilla, the bearer of this letter, to inform you of certain things on our behalf. We ask that you give him full faith, trust, and obedience. Given in Madrid on May 26, 1499.
I the