ubsided and his fame as an explorer was obscured by his incompetency as a
governor. He himself never lived to comprehend the real importance of his
discovery and he persisted in regarding the islands as the outposts of a
great Oriental empire. Having sailed to seek a short route to the ancient
East, Columbus was constrained to render his disappointing discovery
acceptable by making it profitable and, since the promised gold and rare
spices were not forthcoming, only the trade in slaves remained to furnish
immediate profits. In July, 1500, Francisco de Bobadilla sailed to
supersede Columbus, with full powers from the sovereigns, and had he gone
as a messenger of vengeance to chastise the Admiral's moral backsliding,
he could not have enacted the role more consistently, for, from the moment
of his landing, his treatment of Columbus was ruthless, and an amazed
world was shortly furnished the humiliating spectacle of the great
Admiral, in chains, shipped back to the kingdom he had endowed with a
world. Bobadilla's moral, social, and economic administration proved a
complete failure and his own excesses contributed to his speedy removal,
without his management of the colony having corrected the abuses he was
sent out to redress or having relieved the Indians from the bonds of
slavery which, in defiance of the sovereign's commands, were being daily
riveted more securely upon them.

The justified protests of Columbus found a hearing, and the man who had
inflicted a supreme indignity upon him was recalled, Don Nicholas de
Ovando being appointed by a royal cedula of September 3, 1501, to succeed
him.

CHAPTER III. - THE COLONY OF HISPANIOLA. ARRIVAL OF LAS CASAS. CONDITION
OF THE COLONISTS

The arrival of Don Nicholas de Ovando's fleet at Hispaniola was an event
of the greatest importance to the colony. The first news that greeted the
new arrivals was that of the discovery of a huge nugget of gold, the
largest yet found and which, in fact, was never again equalled in size
until the rich lodes in California were tapped in 1849, for it weighed
thirty-five pounds and was valued at 3600 pesos in the money of that time.

This famous nugget was found eight or nine leagues from the settlement of
San Domingo, by an Indian girl, who, while resting from her labours, idly
turned up the soil with an instrument she held, and thus brought to light
the wonderful treasure. The Governor appropriated it for the King, paying
its v