terment of affairs in the distant colony. Only
their result upon the Admiral is known to us. He sat down there and then
and wrote to Bartholomew, urging him to secure peace in the island by
every means in his power, to send home any caciques or natives who were
likely to give trouble, and most of all to push on with the building of a
settlement on the south coast where the new mines were, and to have a
cargo of gold ready to send back with the next expedition. Having
written this letter, the Admiral saw the little fleet sail away on June
17th, and himself prepared with mingled feelings to present himself
before his Sovereigns.

While he was waiting for their summons at Los Palacios, a small town near
Seville, he was the guest of the curate of that place, Andrez Bernaldez,
who had been chaplain to Christopher's old friend DEA, the Archbishop of
Seville. This good priest evidently proved a staunch friend to Columbus
at this anxious period of his life, for the Admiral left many important
papers in his charge when he again left Spain, and no small part of the
scant contemporary information about Columbus that has come down to us is
contained in the 'Historia de los Reyes Catolicos', which Bernaldez wrote
after the death of Columbus.

Fickle Spain had already forgotten its first sentimental enthusiasm over
the Admiral's discoveries, and now was only interested in their financial
results. People cannot be continually excited about a thing which they
have not seen, and there were events much nearer home that absorbed the
public interest. There was the trouble with France, the contemplated
alliance of the Crown Prince with Margaret of Austria, and of the Spanish
Princess Juana with Philip of Austria; and there were the designs of
Ferdinand upon the kingdom of Naples, which was in his eyes a much more
desirable and valuable prize than any group of unknown islands beyond the
ocean.

Columbus did his very best to work up enthusiasm again. He repeated the
performance that had been such a success after his first voyage--the kind
of circus procession in which the natives were marched in column
surrounded by specimens of the wealth of the Indies. But somehow it did
not work so well this time. Where there had formerly been acclamations
and crowds pressing forward to view the savages and their ornaments,
there were now apathy and a dearth of spectators. And although Columbus
did his very best, and was careful to exhibit ev