Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/195

171 SECOND VOYAGE. 171 lovingly, maintaining a familiar intercourse with chapter them, rendering them all the kind offices in his ^ ers granted to Colum- power, distributing presents of the merchandise and various commodities, which their Highnesses had caused to be embarked on board the fleet for that purpose ; and finally, to chastise, in the most exem- plary manner, all who should offer the natives the slightest molestation." Such were the instructions emphatically urged on Columbus for the regulation of his intercourse with the savages ; and their in- dulgent tenor sufficiently attests the benevolent and rational views of Isabella, in religious matters, when not warped by any foreign influence. '^ Towards the last of May, Columbus quitted Bar- New pow celona for the purpose of superintending and expe- 1°^^ diting the preparations for departure on his second voyage. He was accompanied to the gates of the city by all the nobility and cavaliers of the court. Orders were issued to the different towns, to pro- vide him and his suite with lodgings free of ex- pense. His former commission was not only con- firmed in its full extent, but considerably enlarged. For the sake of despatch, he was authorized to 18 Seethe original instructions, the relation of events passing, as it apud Navarrete, Coleccion de Via- were, under his own eyes. " The ges, Col. Diplom.,no.45. — Muiioz, Catholic sovereigns having subju- Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 4, sec. gated the Canaries, and established 22. — Zuiiiga, Annales de Sevilla, Christian worship there, sent Peter p. 413. Colon, with thirty-five ships, called L. Marineo eagerly claims the caravels, and a great number of conversion of the natives, as the men to other much larger islands prime object of the expedition abounding in mines of gold, not so with the sovereigns, far outweigh- much, however, for the sake of the ing all temporal considerations, gold, as for the salvation of the The passage is worth quoting, if poor heathen natives." Cosas Me- only to show what egregious blun- morables, fol. 161. ders a contemporary may make in
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