e of Bobadilla, whose royal
commission, under such circumstances, gave him irresistible power. He
threw Diego into prison and loaded him with fetters. He seized the
Admiral's house, and confiscated all his personal property, even
including his business papers and private letters. When the Admiral
arrived in San Domingo, Bobadilla, without even waiting to see him, sent
an officer to put him in irons and take him to prison. When Bartholomew
arrived, he received the same treatment. The three brothers were
confined in different places, nobody was allowed to visit them, and
they were not informed of the offences with which they were charged.
While they lay in prison, Bobadilla busied himself with inventing an
excuse for this violent behaviour. Finally he hit upon one at which
Satan from the depths of his bottomless pit must have grimly smiled. He
said that he had arrested and imprisoned the brothers only because he
had reason to believe they were inciting the Indians to aid them in
resisting the commands of Ferdinand and Isabella!! In short, from the
day of his landing Bobadilla made common cause with the insurgent
rabble, and when they had furnished him with a ream or so of charges
against the Admiral and his brothers, it seemed safe to send these
gentlemen to Spain. They were put on board ship, with their fetters upon
them, and the officer in charge was instructed by Bobadilla to deliver
them into the hands of Bishop Fonseca, who was thus to have the
privilege of glutting to the full his revengeful spite.

[Footnote 600: The documents are given in Navarrete, _Coleccion
de viages_, tom. ii. pp. 235-240; and, with accompanying
narrative, in Las Casas, _Hist. de las Indias_, tom. ii. pp.
472-487.]

[Footnote 601: No better justification for the government of
the brothers Columbus can be found than to contrast it with the
infinitely worse state of affairs that ensued under the
administrations of Bobadilla and Ovando. See below, vol. ii.
pp. 442-446.]

[Sidenote: Return to Spain.]

[Sidenote: Release of Columbus.]

The master of the ship, shocked at the sight of fetters upon such a man
as the Admiral, would have taken them off, but Columbus would not let it
be done. No, indeed! they should never come off except by order of the
sovereigns, and then he would keep them for the rest of his life, to
show how his labours had been rewarded.[602] The