covered by Columbus prior to 1495. The last provision shows the perfidious artifice of Fonseca, as it left Paria and the Pearl Islands free to the visits of Ojeda, they having been discovered by Columbus subsequent to the designated year. The ships were to be fitted out at the charges of the adventurers, and a certain proportion of the products of the voyage were to be rendered to the Crown.

Under this license Ojeda fitted out four ships at Seville, assisted by many eager and wealthy speculators. Among the number was the celebrated Amerigo Vespucci, a Florentine merchant, well acquainted with geography and navigation. The principal pilot of the expedition was Juan de la Cosa, a mariner of great repute, a disciple of the Admiral, whom he had accompanied in his first voyage of discovery, and in that along the southern coast of Cuba, and round the island of Jamaica. There were several also of the mariners, and Bartholomew Roldan, a distinguished pilot, who had been with Columbus in his voyage to Paria.* Such was the expedition which, by a singular train of circumstances, eventually gave the name of this Florentine merchant, Amerigo Vespucci, to the whole of the New World.

This expedition had sailed in May, 1499. * Las Casas.

The adventurers had arrived on the southern continent, and ranged along its coast, from two hundred leagues east of the Oroonoko, to the gulf of Paria. Guided by the charts of Columbus, they had passed through this gulf, and through the Boca del Dragon, and had kept along westward to Cape de la Vela, visiting the island of Margarita and the adjacent continent, and discovering the gulf of Venezuela. They had subsequently touched the Caribbee Islands, where they had fought with the fierce natives, and made many captives, with the intention of selling them in the slave-markets of Spain. Thence, being in need of supplies, they had sailed to Hispaniola, having performed the most extensive voyage hitherto made along the shores of the New World.*

Having collected all the information that he could obtain concerning these voyagers, their adventures and designs, and trusting to the declaration of Ojeda, that he should proceed forthwith to present himself to the Admiral, Roldan returned to San Domingo to render a report of his mission.

*Herrera, Hist. Ind., decad. i., lib. iv., cap. 4. Muñoz, Hist. N. Mundo, part in MS. unpublished.

Chapter VI.

MANOEUVRES OF ROLDAN AND OJEDA.

W

[1500.]

HEN intelligence was brought to Columbus of the nature of the expedition of Ojeda, and the license

under which he sailed, he consid

ered himself deeply aggrieved, it being a direct infraction of his most important prerogatives, and sanctioned by authority which ought to have held them sacred. He awaited patiently however the promised visit of Alonso de Ojeda to obtain fuller explanations. Nothing was further from the intention of that roving commander than to keep such promise; he had made it merely to elude the vigilance of Roldan. As soon as he had refitted his vessels and obtained a supply of provisions, he sailed round to the coast of Xaragua, where he arrived in February. Here he was well received by the

Spaniards resident in that province, who supplied all his wants. Among them were many of the late comrades of Roldan, loose, random characters, impatient of order and restraint, and burning with animosity against the Admiral, for having again brought them under the wholesome authority of the laws.

Knowing the rash and fearless character of Ojeda, and finding that there were jealousies between him and the Admiral, they hailed him as a new leader, come to redress their fancied grievances in place of Roldan, whom they considered as having deserted them. They made clamorous complaints to Ojeda of the injustice of the Admiral, whom they charged with withholding from them the arrears of their pay.

Ojeda was a hot-headed man with somewhat of a vaunting spirit, and immediately set himself up for a redressor of grievances. It is said also that he gave himself out as authorized by government, in conjunction with Carvajal, to act as counsellors or rather supervisors of the Admiral, and that one of the first measures they were to take was to enforce the payment of all salaries due to the servants of the Crown.* It is questionable however whether Ojeda made any pretension of the kind, which could so readily be disproved and * Hist. del Almirante, cap. 48.

would have tended to disgrace him with the government. It is probable that he was encouraged in his intermeddling, chiefly by his knowledge of the tottering state of the Admiral's favor at court and of his own security in the powerful protection of Fonseca. He may have imbibed also the opinion, diligently fostered by those with whom he had chiefly communicated in Spain just before his departure, that these people had been driven to extremities by the oppression of the Admiral and his brothers. Some feeling of generosity therefore may have mingled with his usual love of action and enterprise, when he proposed to redress all their wrongs, put himself at their head, march at once to San Domingo, and oblige the admiral to pay them on the spot or expel him from the island.

The proposition of Ojeda was received with acclamations of transport by some of the rebels, others made objections. Quarrels arose; a ruffianly scene of violence and brawl ensued, in which several were killed and wounded on both sides, but the party for the expedition to San Domingo remained triumphant.

Fortunately for the peace and safety of the Admiral, Roldan arrived in the neighborhood just at this critical juncture, attended by a crew of resolute fellows. He had been des