38
VOYAGES
AND
D I S C O V E R I E S OF
Satisfied with their success, they now set sail for Spain, and piloted their little bark safely to Bayonne in Gallicia, where they anchored about the middle of April, 1500, nearly two months before the arrival of Ojeda and his associates, La Cosa and Vespucci.* The most successful voyagers to the New World were doomed to trouble from their very success.
The ample amount of pearls
paid to the treasury, as the royal portion of the profits of this expedition, drew suspicion instead of favor upon the two adven足 turers.
They were accused of having concealed a great part of
the pearls collected by them, thus defrauding their companions and the crown.
Pedro Alonzo Nino was actually thrown into
prison on this accusation, but, nothing being proved against him, he was eventually set free, and enjoyed the enviable reputation of having performed the richest voyage that had yet been made to the New World-t * Peter Martyr.
Other historians give a different date for their arrival.
Ilerrera says Feb. 6. t Navarrete, Colec. torn. iii. p. 11.
Herrera, decad. i. lib. iv. cap. 5.