Time is the only truthful judge. The
Admiral likewise discusses the question whether or not Paria is
a continent; he himself thinks it is. Paria lies to the south of
Hispaniola, a distance of 882 leagues, according to Columbus. Upon the
third day of the calends of September of the year 1498, he reached
Hispaniola, most anxious to see again his soldiers and his brother
whom he had left there. But, as commonly happens in human affairs,
fortune, however favourable, mingles with circumstances, sweet and
pleasant, some grain of bitterness. In this case it was internecine
discord which marred his happiness.

[Note 9: Rivalry and perhaps jealousy existed among the
navigators, each bent on eclipsing the achievements of his fellows,
and the former feeling was a spur to enterprise. Yanez Pinzon, Amerigo
Vespucci, Juan Diaz de Solis all explored the American coasts,
discovering Yucatan, Florida, Texas, and Honduras.]

BOOK VII

TO THE SAME CARDINAL LUDOVICO D'ARAGON

Upon his arrival at Hispaniola, the Admiral found an even greater
state of disorder than he had feared, for Roldan had taken advantage
of his absence to refuse obedience to his brother, Bartholomew
Columbus. Resolved not to submit to him who had formerly been his
master and had raised him in dignity, he had stirred up the multitude
in his own favour and had also vilified the Adelantado and had written
heinous accusations to the King against the brothers. The Admiral
likewise sent envoys to inform the sovereigns of the revolt, begging
them at the same time to send soldiers to put down the insurrection
and punish the guilty, according to their crimes. Roldan and his
accomplices preferred grave charges against the Admiral and the
Adelantado, who, according to them, were impious, unjust men, enemies
to the Spaniards, whose blood they had profusely shed. They were
accused of torturing, strangling, decapitating and, in divers other
ways, killing people on the most trifling pretexts. They were envious,
proud, and intolerable tyrants; therefore, people avoided them as they
would fly from wild beasts, or from the enemies of the Crown. It had
in fact been discovered that the sole thought of the brothers was to
usurp the government of the island. This had been proven by different
circumstances, but chiefly by the fact that they allowed none but
their own partisans to work the gold-mines.

In soliciting reinforcements from the sovereigns, sufficient to deal
with the