282
LIFE
AND VOYAGES
OF
[BOOK
V.
insure him such a perpetuity of office: but he was malignant and vindictive; and in the gratification of his private resentments, not only heaped wrongs and sorrows upon the most illustrious of the early discoverers, but frequently impeded the progress of their enterprises, to the great detriment of the crown.
This he was
enabled to do privately and securely by his official situation. His perfidious conduct is repeatedly alluded to, but in guarded terms, by contemporary writers of weight and credit, such as the curate of Los Palacios, and the bishop Las Casas; but they evidently were fearful of expressing the fullness of their feelings. Subsequent Spanish historians, always more or less controlled by ecclesiastical supervision, have likewise dealt too favorably with this base-minded man.
He deserves to be held up as a warning
example of those perfidious beings in office, who too often lie like worms at the root of honorable enterprise, blighting, by their unseen influence, the fruits of glorious action, and disappointing the hopes of nations. To assist Fonseca in his duties, Francisco Pinelo was associated with him as treasurer, and Juan de Soria as contador, or comp troller.
Their office, for the transaction of Indian affairs, was
fixed at Seville; extending its vigilance at the same time to the port of Cadiz, where a custom-house was established for this new branch of navigation.
Such was the germ of the Royal India
House, which afterwards rose to such great power and import ance.
A correspondent office was ordered to be instituted in His
paniola, under the direction of the admiral.
These offices were
to interchange registers of the cargoes, crews, and munition of each ship, by accountants who sailed with it.
All persons thus
employed were dependants upon the two comptrollers-general, superior ministers of the royal revenue; since the crown was to