CHAP. I . ]
CHRISTOPHER
COLUMBUS.
455
letter had barely time to precede the writer, for, a favorable wind springing up, the vessels again made sail, and, on the 13th of August, anchored in the harbor of San Domingo. If it is the lot of prosperity to awaken envy and excite detrac足 tion, it is certainly the lot of misfortune to atone for a multitude of faults. San Domingo had been the very hot-bed of sedition against Columbus in the day of his power ; he had been hurried from it in ignominious chains, amidst the shouts and taunts of the triumphant rabble ; he had been excluded from its harbor, when, as commander of a squadron, he craved shelter from an impend足 ing tempest ; but now that he arrived in its waters, a broken down and shipwrecked man, all past hostility was overpowered by the popular sense of his late disasters. There was a momentary burst of enthusiasm in his favor ; what had been denied to his merits was granted to his misfortunes ; and even the envious, ap足 peased by his present reverses, seemed to forgive him for having once been so triumphant. The governor and principal inhabitants came forth to meet him, and received him with signal distinction. He was lodged as a guest in the house of Ovando, who treated him with the utmost courtesy and attention. The governor was a shrewd and discreet man, and much of a courtier ; but there were causes of jealousy and distrust between him and Columbus too deep to permit of cordial intercourse. The admiral and his son Fernando always pronounced the civility of Ovando overstrained and hypocritical ; intended to obliterate the remembrance of past neglect, and to conceal lurking enmity. While he professed the utmost friend足 ship and sympathy for the admiral, he set at liberty the traitor Porras, who was still a prisoner, to be taken to Spain for trial. He also talked of punishing those of the admiral's people who