CHAP. I.J
CHRISTOPHER
COLUMBUS.
425
and died broken-hearted ; others were hurried off by raging fevers, so that there soon perished upwards of a thousand men. Ovando was reputed a man of great prudence and sagacity, and he certainly took several judicious measures for the regulation of the island, and the relief of the colonists. He made arrange足 ments for distributing the married persons and the families which had come out in his fleet, in four towns in the interior, granting them important privileges. He revived the drooping zeal for mining, by reducing the royal share of the product from one-half to a third, and shortly after to a fifth ; but he empowered the Spaniards to avail themselves, in the most oppressive manner, of the labor of the unhappy natives in working the mines. The charge of treating the natives with severity had been one of those chiefly urged against Columbus. It is proper, therefore, to notice, in this respect, the conduct of his successor, a man chosen for his prudence, and his supposed capacity to govern. It will be recollected, that when Columbus was in a manner compelled to assign lands to the rebellious followers of Francisco Roldan in 1499, he had made an arrangement, that the caciques in their vicinity should, in lieu of tribute, furnish a number of their subjects to assist them in cultivating their estates. This, as has been observed, was the commencement of the disastrous system of repartimientos, or distributions of Indians. When Bobadilla administered the government, he constrained the caciques to fur足 nish a certain number of Indians to each Spaniard, for the purpose of working the mines ; where they were employed like beasts of burden. He made an enumeration of the natives, to prevent evasion ; reduced them into classes, and distributed them among the Spanish inhabitants. The enormous oppressions which ensued have been noticed. They roused the indignation of Isabella ;
VOL. II.
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