Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/502

476 476 PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY. PART reputed "an extremely honest and religious man", and the good bishop Las Casas expressly declares, that " no imputation of dishonesty or avarice had ever rested on his character." ^° It was an error of judgment ; a grave one, indeed, and must pass for as much as it is worth. But in regard to the second charge, of delegat- ing unwarrantable powers, it should be remem- bered, that the grievances of the colony were rep- resented as of a most pressing nature, demanding a prompt and peremptory remedy ; that a more limited and partial authority, dependent for its exercise on instructions from the government at home, might be attended with ruinous delays ; that this authority must necessarily be paramount to that of Columbus, who was a party implicated ; and that, although unlimited jurisdiction was given over all offences committed against him, yet neither he nor his friends were to be molested in any other way than by temporary suspension from office, and a return to their own country, where the merits of their case might be submitted to the sovereigns themselves. This view of the matter, indeed, is perfectly conformable to that of Ferdinand Columbus, whose solicitude, so apparent in every page, for his father's reputation, must have effectually coun- terbalanced any repugnance he may have felt at impugning the conduct of his sovereigns. " The only ground of complaint," he remarks, in sum- 30 Oviedo, Hist. Gen. de las sas, lib. 2, cap. 6, apud Navarrete, Ind., P. 1, lib. 3, cap. 6. — Las Ca- torn, i., introd., p. 99.