Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/504

478 478 PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY. PART plausible and politic in his address. It is sufficient '- — evidence of his standing at court, that he had been one of the ten youths selected to be educated in the palace as companions for the prince of the Asturias. He was furnished with a fleet of two and thirty sail, carrying twenty-five hundred per- sons, many of them of the best families in the kingdom, with every variety of article for the nour- ishment and permanent prosperity of the colony ; and the general equipment was in a style of ex- pense and magnificence, such as had never before been lavished on any armada destined for the western waters.^^ 1501. The new governor was instructed immediately ^^^'* on his arrival to send Bobadllla home for trial. Under his lax administration, abuses of every kind had multiplied to an alarming extent, and the poor natives, in particular, were rapidly wasting away under the new and most inhuman arrangement of the repartimientos, which he established. Isabella now declared the Indians free ; and emphatically enjoined on the authorities of Hispaniola to respect them as true and faithful vassals of the crown. Ovando was especially to ascertain the amount of losses sustained by Columbus and his brothers, to provide for their full indemnification, and to secure the unmolested enjoyment in future of all their lawful rights and pecuniary perquisites.^^ 32 Herrera, Indias Occidentales, 33 Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 4, cap. II. — Fernando lib. 4, cap. 11-13. — Navarrete, Colon, Hist, del Alinirnnte, cap. Cnleccion de A'iages, torn, ii., Doc. 87. — Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., Dipl., nos. 138, 144. — P'ernando lib. 1, cap. 12. —Mem. de la Acad. Colon, Hist, del Almiranie, cap. de Hist., torn. vi. p. 385. 87.