ong with the venom of the serpent, Bobadilla was simply a
jackass, and behaved so that in common decency the sovereigns were
obliged to disown him. They took no formal or public notice of his
written charges against the Admiral, and they assured the latter that he
should be reimbursed for his losses and restored to his viceroyalty and
other dignities.

[Sidenote: Ovando, another creature of Fonseca, appointed governor of
Hispaniola.]

This last promise, however, was not fulfilled; partly, perhaps, because
Fonseca's influence was still strong enough to prevent it, partly
because the sovereigns may have come to the sound and reasonable
conclusion that for the present there was no use in committing the
government of that disorderly rabble in Hispaniola to a foreigner. What
was wanted was a Spanish priest, and a military priest withal, of the
sort that Spain then had in plenty. Obedience to priests came natural to
Spaniards. The man now selected was Nicolas de Ovando, a knight
commander of the order of Alcantara, of whom we shall have more to say
hereafter.[605] Suffice it now to observe that he proved himself a
famous disciplinarian, and that he was a great favourite with Fonseca,
to whom he seems to have owed his appointment. He went out in February,
1502, with a fleet of thirty ships carrying 2,500 persons, for the
pendulum of public opinion had taken another swing, and faith in the
Indies was renewed. Some great discoveries, to be related in the next
chapter, had been made since 1498; and, moreover, the gold mines of
Hispaniola were beginning to yield rich treasures.

[Footnote 605: See below, vol. ii. pp. 435-446.]

[Sidenote: Purpose of Columbus's fourth voyage.]

But, while the sovereigns were not disposed to restore Columbus to his
viceroyalty, they were quite ready to send him on another voyage of
discovery which was directly suggested by the recent Portuguese voyage
of Gama. Since nothing was yet known about the discovery of a New World,
the achievement of Gama seemed to have eclipsed that of Columbus. Spain
must make a response to Portugal. As already observed, the Admiral
supposed the coast of his "Eden continent" (South America) either to be
continuous with the coast of Cochin China (Cuba) and Malacca, or else to
be divided from that coast by a strait. The latter opinion was the more
probable, since Marco Polo and a few other Europeans had sailed from
China into the Indian ocean without encounteri