Page:The Red Man and the White Man in North America.djvu/65

Rh a loyal fidelity. When the Admiral anxiously but hopefully approached the spot, it was to confront a bitter disappointment. The disaster which he had to contemplate was shrouded in a mystery which was never wholly cleared. Desolation and silence rested on the scene. Havoc and desertion everywhere showed their evidences, without revealing the cause, the occasion, or the agents. Not a Spaniard survived on the spot, or ever was found to tell the story; and the Admiral was left to surmise an explanation, with such unsatisfactory help as he afterwards had from the natives. The inferences fully certified were, that the colonists, mostly of low character, had become restless, insubordinate, and lawless, had fallen into neglect of all prudence, and broken into discord. They had scattered themselves among the natives, oppressing them, and indulging in the grossest licentiousness, thus provoking a revenge which had fatally accomplished its work. With a heavy heart the Admiral faced the calamity. He soon selected a more healthful site for a town, which he called Isabella, to be occupied by the edifices and tilled fields of one thousand colonists, whose main and consuming passion was the search for gold. Columbus sent back to Spain twelve of the vessels, retaining the other five. In these return vessels were men, women, and children captured on the Caribbean islands. It may have been under the prompting of a humane purpose, however darkened in its view of justice or expediency, that the Admiral, while sending over more than five hundred captives, in a letter to their Majesties proposed for the future to transport to Spain an indefinite number of natives to be sold as slaves, — the blessing accruing to them of being instructed in Christianity and rescued from perdition, while the proceeds of their sale would relieve the enormous expense of the enterprise to the royal treasury, and procure live-stock and other supplies for the colony.

It is to be observed that the first company of natives transported for sale as slaves were thought to be not