The letter to the Lady Juana, which gives Columbus's own statementof the indignities put upon him in San Domingo, is written in his mostcrabbed Spanish. He never wrote the Spanish language accurately, and theletter, as printed from his own manuscript, is even curious in its infelicities.
It is so striking an illustration of the character of the man that we printhere an abstract of it, with some passages translated directly from his ownlanguage.
Columbus writes, towards the end of the year 1500, to the formernurse of Don Juan, an account of the treatment he has received. "If mycomplaint of the world is new, its method of abuse is very old," he says.
"God has made me a messenger of the new heaven and the new earthwhich is spoken of in the Apocalypse by the mouth of St. John, afterhaving been spoken of by Isaiah, and he showed me the place where itwas." Everybody was incredulous, but the queen alone gave the spirit ofintelligence and zeal to the undertaking. Then the people talked ofobstacles and expense. Columbus says "seven years passed in talk, andnine in executing some noted acts which are worthy of remembrance," buthe returned reviled by all.
"If I had stolen the Indies and had given them to the Moors I could nothave had greater enmity shown to me in Spain." Columbus would haveliked then to give up the business if he could have come before the queen.
However he persisted, and he says he "undertook a new voyage to the newheaven and the new earth which before had been hidden, and if it is notappreciated in Spain as much as the other countries of India it is notsurprising, because it is all owing to my industry." He "had believed thatthe voyage to Paria would reconcile all because of the pearls and gold inthe islands of Espanola." He says, "I caused those of our people whom Ihad left there to come together and fish for pearls, and arranged that Ishould return and take from them what had been collected, as I understood,in measure a fanega (about a bushel). If I have not written this to theirHighnesses it is because I wished also to have as much of gold. But thatfled before me, as all other things; I would not have lost them and with them my honor, if I could have busied myself with my own affairs.
"When I went to San Domingo I found almost half of the colonyuprising, and they made war upon me as a Moor, and the Indians on theother side were no less cruel.
"Hojida came and he tried to make order, and he said that theirHighnesses had sent him with promises of gifts and grants and money. Hemade up a large company, for in all Espanola there were few men whowere not vagabonds, and no one lived there who had wife or children."Hojida retired with threats.
"Then Vincente Ganez came with four ships. There were outbreaksand suspicions but no damage." He reported that six other ships under abrother of the Alcalde would arrive, and also the death of the queen, butthese were rumors without foundation.
"Adrian (Mogica) attempted to go away as before, but our Lord didnot permit him to carry out his bad plan." Here Columbus regrets that hewas obliged to use force or ill-treat Adrian, but says he would have donethe same had his brother wished to kill him or wrest from him thegovernment which the king and queen had given him to guard.
"For six months I was ready to leave to take to their Highnesses thegood news of the gold and to stop governing a dissolute people who fearedneither king nor queen, full of meanness and malice. I would have beenable to pay all the people with six hundred thousand maravedis and forthat there were more than four millions of tithes without counting the thirdpart of the gold."Columbus says that be begged before his departure that they wouldsend some one at his expense to take command, and yet again a subjectwith letters, for he says bitterly that he has such a singular reputation thatif he "were building churches and hospitals they would say they were cellsfor stolen goods."Then Bobadilla came to Santo Domingo while Columbus was atLaVega and the Adelantado at Jaragua. "The second day of his arrival hedeclared himself governor, created magistrates, made offices, publishedgrants for gold and tithes, and everything else for a term of twenty years."He said he had come to pay the people, and declared he would send Columbus home in irons. Columbus was away. Letters with favors weresent to others, but none to him. Columbus resorted to methods to gain timeso that their Highnesses could understand the state of things. But he wasconstantly maligned and persecuted by those who were jealous of him. Hesays:
"I think that you will remember that when the tempest threw me intothe port of Lisbon, after having lost my sails, I was accused of having theintention to give India to that country. Afterwards their Highnesses knewto the contrary. Although I know but little, I cannot conceive that any onewould suppose me so stupid as not to know that though India mightbelong to me, yet I could not keep it without the help of a prince."Columbus complains that he has been judged as a governor who hasbeen sent to a peaceful, well-regulated province. He says, "I ought to bejudged as a captain sent from Spain to the Indies to conquer a warlikepeople, whose custom and religion are all opposed to ours, where thepeople live in the mountains without regular houses for themselves, andwhere, by the will of God, I have placed under the rule of the king andqueen another world, and by which Spain, which calls itself poor, is todaythe richest empire. I ought to be judged as a captain who for many yearsbears arms incessantly.
"I know well that the errors that I have committed have not been withbad intentions, and I think that their Highnesses will believe what I say;but I know and see that they use pity for those who work against them.""If, nevertheless, their Highnesses order that another shall judge me,which I hope will not be, and this ought to be on an examination made inIndia, I humbly beg of them to send there two conscientious andrespectable people, at my expense, which may know easily that one findsfive marcs of gold in four hours. However that may be, it is very necessarythat they should go there."