Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/485

459 TREATMENT OF COLUMBUS. 459 This unfortunate result was in a great measure chapter imputable to the misconduct of the colonists them- ^— selves. Most of them were adventurers, who had ofuiecoio- nists. embarked with no other expectation than that of getting together a fortune as speedily as possible in the golden Indies. They were without subordina- tion, patience, industry, or any of the regular habits demanded for success in such an enterprise. As soon as they had launched from their native shore, they seemed to feel themselves released from the constraints of all law. They harboured jealousy and distrust of the admiral as a foreigner. The cavaliers and hidalgos, of whom there were too many in the expedition, contemned him as an upstart, whom it was derogatory to obey. From the first moment of their landing in Hispaniola, they indulged the most wanton license in regard to the unoffending natives, who, in the simplicity of their hearts, had received the white men as mes- sengers from Heaven. Their outrages, however, soon provoked a general resistance, which led to such a war of extermination, that, in less than four years after the Spaniards had set foot on the island, one third of its population, amounting, probably, to several hundred thousands, were sacrificed ! Such were the melancholy auspices, under which the intercourse was opened between the civilized white man and the simple natives of the western world.^ 3 Fernando Colon, Hist, del Al- 25. — Herrera, Indias Occidentales, mirante, cap. 60, 62. — MuHoz, dec. 1, lib. 2, cap. 9. — IJenzoni, Hist, del Nuevo-Miindo, lib. 5, sec. Novi Orbis Hist. , lib. 1, cap. 9.