against Columbus: "the stones rose up against him and his brothers," says
the historian Herrera, emphatically, The people told how he had made them
work, even sick men, at his fortresses, at his house, at the mills, and
other buildings; how he had starved them; how he had condemned men to be
whipped for the slightest causes, as, for instance, for stealing a peck of
wheat when they were dying of hunger. Considering the difficulties he had
to deal with, and the scarcity of provisions, many of these accusations,
if rightly examined, would probably have not merely failed in producing
anything against Columbus, but would have developed some proofs of his
firmness and sagacity as a governor. Then his accusers went on to other
grounds, such as his not having baptized Indians "because he desired
slaves rather than Christians:" moreover, that he had entered into war
unjustly with the Indians, and that he had made many slaves, in order to
send them to Castile. It is highly unlikely that these latter charges were
preferred by a single colonist, unless, perhaps, by some man in religious
orders. The probability is, that they came from the other side of the
water; and this does give considerable strength to the report, that the
displeasure of the court with respect to the Admiral's proceedings against
the Indians had to do with his removal from the government of the Indies.
If so, it speaks largely for the continued admirable intentions of the
Spanish court in this matter.

Poor Columbus! His chains lay very heavily upon him. He insisted, however,
upon not having them taken off, unless by royal command, and would ever
keep them by him, ("I always saw them in his room," says his son
Ferdinand), ordering that they should be buried with him. He did not know
how many wretched beings would have to traverse those seas, in bonds much
worse than his, with no room allowed them for writing, as was his
case,--not even for standing upright; nor did he foresee, I trust, that
some of his doings would further all this coming misery. In these
chains Columbus is of more interest to us than when in full power as
governor of the Indies; for so it is, that the most infelicitous times of
a man's life are those which posterity will look to most, and love him
most for. This very thought may have comforted him; but happily he had
other sources of consolation in the pious aspirations which never deserted
him.

We have come now to the end of Columbus's admi