CHAP. I V . ]
CHRISTOPHER
COLUMBUS.
263
ered by the clause in the letter of instructions, dated March 21st, 1499, in which, speaking of the rebellion of Roldan, “ he is au thorized to seize the persons, and sequestrate the property of those who appeared to be culpable, and then to proceed against them and against the absent, with the highest civil and criminal penal ties." This evidently had reference to the persons of Roldan and his followers, who were then in arms, and against whom Co lumbus had sent home complaints ; and this, by a violent construc tion, Bobadilla seems to have wrested into an authority for seizing the person of the admiral himself. In fact, in the whole course of his proceedings, he reversed and confounded the order of his instructions. His first step should have been to proceed against the rebels ; this he made the last. His last step should have been, in case of ample evidence against the admiral, to have superseded him in office ; and this he made the first, without waiting for evidence. Having predetermined, from the very outset, that Columbus was in the wrong, by the same rule he had to presume that all the opposite parties were in the right. It be came indispensable to his own justification to inculpate the admiral and his brothers ; and the rebels he had been sent to judge be came, by this singular perversion of rule, necessary and cherished evidences, to criminate those against whom they had rebelled. The intentions of the crown, however, are not to be vindica ted at the expense of its miserable agent. If proper respect had been felt for the rights and dignities of Columbus, Bobadilla would never have been intrusted with powers so extensive, undefined, and discretionary ; nor would he have dared to proceed to such lengths, with such rudeness and precipitation, had he not felt assured that it would not be displeasing to the jealous-minded Ferdinand.