pressors, and the rights and privileges bestowed upon him by the capitulation of 1492. Ferdinand, by an infidelity peculiar to monarchs, continued to amuse him with fair words and unmeaning promises: Instead of granting his claims, he proposed expedients in order to elude them.

239. The declining health of Columbus, flattered Ferdinand with the hopes of being soon delivered from an importunate suitor, nor was he deceived in his expectations. Disgusted with the ingratitude of a monarch, whom he had served with such fidelity and success, worn out with fatigues and hardships, and broken with the infirmities which these had brought upon him, Columbus ended his life at Valladolid, on the 20th of May, 1506, in the 59th year of his age. He died with a composure of mind suitable to the magnanimity which distinguished his character, and with sentiments of piety becoming that supreme respect for religion, which he manifested in every occurrence of his life.

CHAPTER V.

ANACOANA CRUELLY TREATED BY OVANDO.-BALBOA DISCOVERS THE PACIFIC OCEAN.

240. While Columbus was employed in his last voyage, the colony of Hispaniola was gradually acquiring the form of a regular government: the humane solicitude of Isabella to protect the Indians from oppression, and the proclamation, by which the Spaniards were prohibited from compelling them to work, retarded the progress of improvement for some time. The natives, who considered exemption from labor as supreme happiness, rejected, with scorn, every allurement by which they were invited to work. The Spaniards, accustomed to the service of the Indians, quitted the island; many of those who came over with Ovando, were seized with distempers peculiar to the climate; and in a short time nearly a thousand of them died. At the same time, the demand of one-half of the product of the mines, claimed by the crown, was found to be such an exaction, that there was no one to be found who would engage to work them upon such terms.

241. Ovando, to save the colony from ruin, relaxed the rigor of the royal edicts, and again distributed the Indians among the Spaniards, compelling them to work, for a stated time, in digging the mines, or in cultivating the ground; to cover this breach of his instructions, he enjoined their masters to pay them a certain sum, as the price of their work. He reduced

the royal share of gold found in the mines to one-fifth, and was so fortunate as to persuade the court to approve of these regulations.

242. The Indians, after enjoying a short respite from servitude, now felt the yoke of bondage to be so galling, that they made several attempts to regain their freedom. This the Spaniards considered as rebellion, and took arms in order to reduce them to obedience: considering them not as men fighting in defence of their liberty, but as slaves, who had revolted against their masters. Their caziques, when taken, were condemned like the leaders of a banditti, to the most cruel and ignominious punishments; and all their subjects, without regard to rank, were reduced to the same abject slavery. Such was the fate of the cazique of Higuey, a province in the eastern extremity of the island.

243. This war was occasioned by the perfidy of the Spaniards, in violating a treaty, began and concluded by them with the natives; and was terminated by hanging up the cazique, who defended his people with a bravery that deserved a better fate.

244. But the treatment of Anacoana, a female cazique, was still more treacherous and cruel. The province anciently called Xaragua, which extends from the fertile plain where Leogane is now situated, to the western extremity of the island, was subject to her authority. She, from that fondness with which the women of America were attached to the Europeans, had always courted the friendship of the Spaniards, and done them good offices. But some of the adherents of Roldan, having settled in her country, were so exasperated at her endeavoring to restrain their excesses, that they accused her of a design to throw off the yoke, and destroy the Spaniards.

245. Ovando, though he knew that little credit was due to such profligate characters, marched without further inquiry towards Xaragua, with three hundred foot and seventy horsemen. To prevent the Indians from taking alarm at this hostile appearance, he gave out that it was his sole intention to visit Anacoana, to whom his countrymen had been so much indebted, and to regulate with her the mode of levying the tribute paya. ble to the king of Spain.

246. Anacoana, in order to receive this illustrious guest with due honor, assembled the principal men in her dominions, to the number of three hundred, and advancing at their head, accompanied by a vast crowd of inferior rank, she welcomed Ovando with songs and dances, and conducted him to the place

of her residence. There he was entertained for several days, with all the kindness of simple hospitality, and amused with games and spectacles usual among the natives, upon occasions of mirth and festivity.

247. Amidst the security which this inspired, Ovando was meditating the destruction of his unsuspicious and generous entertainer, and her subjects; and the manner in which he executed his scheme, discovered such meanness and barbarity, as must shock every lover of humanity.

248. Under color of showing the Indians an European tournament, he advanced with his troops in battle array. The infantry took possession of all the avenues which led to the village, while the horsemen encompassed the house in which Anacoana and her chiefs were assembled. These movements were beheld with admiration, without any mixture of fear: until, upon a signal, the Spaniards drew their swords, and rushed upon the Indians, who were defenceless, and astonished at an act of treachery which exceeded their conception. Anacoana was instantly secured; all her attendants who were in the house, were seized and bound. Fire was set to the house; and without examination, all those unhappy persons, the most illustrious in their own country, were consumed in the flames. Anacoana was reserved for a more ignominious fate: she was carried in chains to St. Domingo; and, after the formality of a trial before Spanish judges, she was condemned, upon the evidence of these very men who had betrayed her, to be publicly hanged.

249. The Indians, overawed and humbled by the destruction of their chief and principal men, submitted to the Spanish yoke. Ovando distributed them among his friends on the island. The exactions of their oppressors no longer knew any bounds: but barbarous as their policy was, and fatal to the natives, it produced considerable consequences, by calling forth the exertion of a whole nation, and pointing it in one direction.

250. The working of the mines was carried on with amazing success. During several years, the gold brought into the royal smelting-houses in Hispaniola, amounted annually to 460,000 dollars, above one hundred thousand pounds sterling: an immense sum at that time.

251. Although Ovando had treated the Indians with cruelty and treachery, he governed the Spaniards with wisdom and justice: he established equal laws, and executed them impartially; he endeavored to turn the attention of the Spaniards to industry, more useful than searching the mines for gold. Some

slips of the sugar-cane having been brought from the Canaries > by way of experiment, were found to thrive with such increase in the warm soil of Hispaniola, that the cultivation of the cane became an object of attention: and, in a few years, the production of sugar was the most certain source of their wealth. 252. But notwithstanding this prosperous appearance of the colony, a calamity impended, which threatened its dissolution. The natives, on whose labor the Spaniards depended, wasted so fast, that the extinction of their whole race appeared to be inevitable. When Columbus discovered Hispaniola, the number of the inhabitants was computed to be at least a million: they were now reduced to sixty thousand in the space of fif teen years. This amazing consumption of the human species was the effect of several concurring causes. The inactivity in which they were accustomed to pass their days, as it was the effect of their debility, contributed to increase it; their food afforded them but little nourishment, and, taken in such small quantities, it was not sufficient to invigorate a languid frame, and render it equal to the efforts which industry and the avarice of their masters required.

253. The Spaniards, without attending to those peculiarities in the constitution of the Indians, imposed such tasks upon them, that many sunk under the fatigue, and ended their wretched days. Others, in despair, cut short their own existence with a violent hand. Diseases, of various kinds, completed the desolation of the island. The Spaniards, thus deprived of their slaves, found it impossible to extend their improvements, or even carry on the works which they had already begun.

254. Ovando, in order to provide an immediate remedy for an evil so alarming, proposed to transport the inhabitants of the Lucayo islands to Hispaniola, under pretence they might be civilized with more facility, and instructed to greater advantage in the Christian faith, if they were united to the Spanish colony, and under the immediate inspection of the missionaries settled there.

255. Ferdinand, deceived by this artifice, or willing to connive at an act of violence which policy represented as necessary, assented to the proposal. Several vessels were fitted out for the Lucayos, the commanders of which informed the natives, with whose language they were now acquainted, that they came from a delightful country, in which their departed ancestors resided, by whom they were sent to invite them to partake of that bliss which they enjoyed. The simple people lis

tened with wonder and credulity; and delighted with the idea of visiting their relations and friends in that happy region, followed the Spaniards with eagerness.

256. By this artifice, above forty thousand were decoyed into Hispaniola to mingle their groans and tears with its native inhabitants. The ardor with which the Spaniards pursued their operations in the mines, and the success attending their pursuit, seemed to have engrossed their whole attention: no enterprise of any moment had been undertaken since the last voyage of Columbus. But the rapid decrease of the Indians rendered it impossible to acquire wealth with the same facility as formerly; they began to form new schemes of aggrandizement, and the spirit of discovering new countries revived.

257. Juan Ponce de Leon, who commanded under Ovando in the eastern district of Hispaniola, passed over to the island of St. John de Puerto Rico, which Columbus had discovered in his second voyage, and penetrated into the interior part of the country. As he found the soil fertile, and expected from the information of the inhabitants, to discover gold mines in the mountains, Ovando permitted him to make a settlement. It was easily effected by that officer, who was eminent for his conduct and courage.

258. In a few years, Puerto Rico was subjected to the Spanish government; the natives were reduced to servitude, and treated with the same inconsiderate rigor as those of Hispaniola; and therefore soon exterminated.

259. About this time, Juan Diaz de Solis, in conjunction with Vincent Yanez Pinzon, one of Columbus's original companions, made a voyage to the continent. They held the same course which Columbus had taken, as far as the island of Guanaios; but, standing from thence to the west, discovered a new and extensive province, afterwards known by the name of Yucatan, and proceeded along the coast of that country.

260. This led to discoveries of greater importance. Sebas tian de Ocampo, by the command of Ovando, sailed round Cuba, and first discovered that this country, which Columbus once supposed to be a part of the continent, was a large island. This was one of the last occurrences of Ovando's administration.

261. Ever since the death of Columbus, his son Don Diego, had been employed in soliciting Ferdinand to grant him the offices of viceroy and admiral, in the New World, together with all the other immunities and profits, which descended to him by inheritance, in consequence of the original capitula