kinds, as well as a
great variety of fowls and fruits.

The admiral was so much delighted with its beauty and fertility, that,
with the warm enthusiasm of a discoverer, he imagined it to be the
Paradise described in Scripture.

Thus Columbus had the glory of discovering the new world, and of
conducting the Spaniards to that vast continent which has been the seat
of their empire and the source of their treasure, in that quarter of the
globe. The shattered condition of his ships and the scarcity of
provisions, made it now necessary to bear away for Hispaniola, where he
arrived wasted to an extreme degree with fatigue and sickness.

Many revolutions had happened in that country during his absence, which
had lasted more than two years.

His brother, whom he had left in command, had, in compliance with advice
which he had given him before his departure, removed the colony from
Isabella to a more commodious station on the opposite side of the
island, and laid the foundation of St. Domingo, which long continued to
be the most considerable town in the new world.

Such was the cruelty and oppression with which the Spaniards treated the
Indians, and so intolerable the burden imposed upon them, that they at
last took arms against their oppressors; but these insurrections were
not formidable. In a conflict with timid and naked Indians, there was
neither danger nor doubt of victory.

A mutiny which broke out among the Spaniards, was of a more dangerous
nature, the ringleader in which was Francisco Roldan, whom Columbus,
when he sailed for Spain, had appointed chief judge, and whose duty it
was to have maintained the laws, instead of breaking them.

This rebellion of Roldan, which threatened the whole country with ruin,
was only subdued by the most wise and prudent conduct on the part of
Columbus; but order and tranquillity were at length apparently restored.

As soon as his affairs would permit, he sent some of his ships to Spain,
with a journal of the voyage which he had made, and a description of the
new continent which he had discovered, and also a chart of the coast
along which he had sailed, and of which I shall have something more to
tell you presently.

He at the same time sent specimens of the gold, the pearls, and other
curious and valuable productions which he had acquired by trafficking
with the natives.

He also transmitted an account of the insurrection in Hispaniola, and
accused the mutineers of having, by