CHAP. I I I . ]
CHRISTOPHER
COLUMBUS.
281
CHAPTER I I I . NICHOLAS D E OVANDO APPOINTED
TO S U P E R S E D E
BOBADILLA.
[1501.]
T H E numerous discoveries briefly noticed in the preceding chap ter, had produced a powerful effect upon the mind of Ferdinand. His ambition, his avarice, and his jealousy, were equally inflamed. He beheld boundless regions, teeming with all kinds of riches, daily opening before the enterprises of his subjects ; but he be held at the same time other nations launching forth into competi tion, emulous for a share of the golden world which he was eager to monopolize. The expeditions of the English, and the acci dental discovery of the Brazils by the Portuguese, caused him much uneasiness. To secure his possession of the continent, he determined to establish local governments or commands, in the most important places, all to be subject to a general government, established at San Domingo, which was to be the metropolis. With these considerations, the government, heretofore granted to Columbus, had risen vastly in importance ; and while the res titution of it was the more desirable in his eyes, it became more and more a matter of repugnance to the selfish and jealous mon arch. He had long repented having vested such great powers and prerogatives in any subject, particularly in a foreigner. At the time of granting them, he had no anticipation of such bound-
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