CHAP. I I . ]
CHRISTOPHER
COLUMBUS.
89
shattered castle, and an order was given for the amount to be paid out of the gold brought by Niño. It was not until the end of December, when Nino arrived at court, and delivered the dispatches of the Adelantado, that his boast of gold was discovered to be a mere figure of speech, and that his caravels were, in fact, freighted with Indian prisoners, from the sale of whom the vaunted gold was to arise. It is difficult to describe the vexatious effects of this absurd hyperbole. The hopes of Columbus, of great and immediate profit from the mines, were suddenly cast down ; the zeal of his few advocates was cooled ; an air of empty exaggeration was given to his enterprises ; and his enemies pointed with scorn and ridicule to the wretched cargoes of the caravels, as the boasted treasures of the New World. The report brought by Nino and his crew, represented the colony as in a disastrous condition, and the dispatches of the Adelantado pointed out the importance of immediate supplies ; but in proportion as the necessity of the case was urgent, the measure of relief was tardy. All the unfavorable representations hitherto made seemed corroborated, and the invidious cry of “ great cost and little gain ” was revived by those politicians of petty sagacity and microscopic eye, who, in all great undertakings, can discern the immediate expense, without having scope of vision to embrace the future profit.
VOL. II.
9