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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2009
Perhaps the most fateful occurrence in Columbus' unlucky career as Governor of Española was the collapse of the governmental arrangements established by him in April 1494. The actual events which led to, and immediately followed, this episode have been shrouded in doubt and confusion from that time to this. The accepted version, repeated by one historian after another since the early 16th century, is however, plain enough: it is to the effect that Columbus, prior to sailing from Española in April to search out the Mainland, appointed a Council of Regency to govern the infant colony until his return. After a wearisome and almost fatal voyage, he returned to Isabela in the following September to find that two of the leading members of the settlement, Pedro Margarit, his military commander, and Fray Boyl, one of the Council and the ecclesiastical head of the settlement, had treacherously deserted and returned to Spain.
1 Bartolomé, de Las Casas, Historia de las Indias (ed. Juan, Pérez de Tudela Bueso), Biblioteca de Autores Españoles, Vols. XCV—XCVI (Madrid 1957), 1, 244, 263;Google ScholarManuel, Serrano y Sanz, Origines de la dominación española en América (Madrid 1918), Chap. VII, pp. 232–43;Google ScholarFernando, del Pulgar, Crónica de los Reyes Católicos (ed. Juan, de Mata Carriazo), (2 vols, Madrid 1943), II, 221–2;Google ScholarJerónimo, Zurita, Historia del Rey Don Hernando el Catholico (2 vols., Zaragoza MDLXXX), 1, fo. 4;Google ScholarSantiago, Sobrequés Vidal, ‘Algo sobre el origen de Pedro Margarit’, Revista de Indias, 12 (1952), 320–334.Google Scholar Cardinal Margarit is the subject of a warmly appreciative biographical sketch in Vespasiano's memoirs. See Vespasiano, , Renaissance Princes, Popes and Prelates. (Trans. William, George and Emily, Walters) (New York 1963), pp. 146–153.Google Scholar
2 Letter of Guglielmo Coma, first published in late 1494 or early 1495. Reproduced in John, Boyd Thacher, Christopher Columbus. His Life, His Work, His Remains, as revealed by original printed and manuscript records (New York 1903), II, Chap. LXXV, 213.Google ScholarPedro, Màrtir de Anglería, Décadas del Nuevo Mundo (2 vols., Mexico MCMLIV), 1, 143;Google ScholarLas, Casas, op. cit., 1, 263.Google Scholar
3 In thanking Boyl for his report, the Monarchs requested that he keep them fully informed ‘of what more may occur before your departure and after your voyage and in all the time that you may be there’. Reyes, Católicos to Boyl, , 4 08 1493. Colección de documentos inéditos, relativos al descubrimiento, conquista y colonización de las posesiones españolas en América y Oceania (D.I.I.) (42 vols., Madrid 1864–1884), XXI, 386.Google Scholar The foregoing outline, necessarily brief, of Boyl's background is based on the series of documental studies published by Fidel, Fita in the Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia, 19, 173–233;Google Scholar ‘Fr. Bernal Boyl y Cristóbal Colón, Nueva Colección de Cartas Reales enriquecidas con algunas inéditas’, pp. 354−6; ‘Fr. Bernal Boyl Abad de Cuxa’, xx, 160–177; ‘Fr. Bernal Boyl, Documentos Inéditos’, pp. 179–89; ‘Fr. Bernal Boyl y D. Juan de Albión’. A short biographical study is given in Antonio, Ballesteros Beretta, Cristóbal Cólon y el descubrimiento de América (Barcelona, 1945), pp. 175–81.Google Scholar See also Loughran, E. Ward, ‘The First Vicar Apostolate of the New World’, Ecclesiastical Review, 9th Series, 2, 1–14.Google Scholar
4 For delicate personal communications which could not be safely entrusted to writing a personal messenger was, when practicable, preferred. Cf. the verbal instructions taken in 1501 to Gutierre Gómez de Fuensalida, the ambassador in Flanders, by Juan Rodríguez de Fonseca, ‘who goes well informed of our will and whom we have ordered to speak to you concerning it as you will see…’ Reyes Católicos to Gómez de Fuensalida, Granada, 17 May 1501. El, Duque de Berwick y de Alba, Correspondencia de Gutierre Gómez de Fuensalida, Embajador en Alemania, Flandres e Inglaterra (1496–1509), (Madrid 1907), p. 186.Google Scholar
5 The editions of these works here cited are as follows: Pedro Màrtir de Anglería, Décadas del Nuevo Mundo, op. cit; El, bachiller Andrés Bernáldez, Historia de los Reyes Católicos, Biblioteca de Autores Españoles (B.A.E.) Vol. LXX (Madrid 1953).Google ScholarGonzalo, Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés, Historia general y natural de las Indias (ed. Pérez de Tudela Bueso, J.), B.A.E. Vols. CXVII–CXVIII (Madrid 1959);Google ScholarHernando, Colón, Historia del Almirante Don Christóbal Colón. In Colección de libros raros o curiosos que tratan de América (2 vols., Madrid 1932).Google ScholarFrancisco, López de Gómara, Hispania Victrix, Primera y Segunda Parte de la Historia General de las Indias. In Historiadores Primitivos de Indias, B.A.E., vols. XV-XVI (Madrid 1957);Google ScholarLas, Casas, op. cit. vols. XV–XVI. Four eyewitness accounts relating to the second voyage fail to throw much direct light on the situation under discussion. Columbus' letter of 30 January, 1494 went back with Torres' return fleet in February 1494. So did the account of Dr Chanca, and the letter of Guglielmo Coma, the first report of the voyage to be printed (see note 2, supra). A further eyewitness reporter, Michele de Cuneo, accompanied Columbus on his voyage to Cuba and tells us virtually nothing of events on Española during his absence.Google Scholar
6 Las, Casas, op. cit., 1, 290.Google Scholar
7 Ibid., pp. 298–9. For a careful account of the chroniclers cited above see Marcel, Bataillon, ‘Historiografía oficial de Colón de Pedro Màrtir a Oviedo y Gómara’, Imago Mundi, 5 (Buenos Aires 1954), 23–9.Google Scholar
8 Ibid., p. 257, Hernando Colón, I, 354–5. The latter gives the time of the rebellion as during Columbus' illness and thus prior to 12 March.
9 Hernando, Colón, I, 355;Google ScholarLas, Casas, I, 260;Google ScholarMàrtir, , 1 lib. 3, Chap. 2, p. 30, who gives 11 March as the day of departure.Google Scholar
10 Colón, , I, 361;Google ScholarLas, Casas, 1, 260.Google Scholar
11 Colón, loc. cit.; Las, Casas, I, 261–3.Google Scholar
12 Colón, , 1, 237–371.Google Scholar Hernando states that this force, comprising all the able men who could be spared, left on 29 April, i.e. after Colombus' departure for Cuba. Las, Casas, I, 265, gives the date as 29 April.Google Scholar
13 Colón, , 1, 375;Google ScholarLas, Casas, I, 268.Google Scholar The Infanta Juana's chief equerry on her nuptial voyage to Flanders in 1496 was Francisco de Luján, son of Juan de Luján and possibly the brother of Columbus' councillor. Lorenzo, de Padilla, Crónica de Felipe I, de Hermoso, dirigida at Emperador Carlos V. In Colección de documentos inéditos para la historia de España, (C.D.I.E.), (Madrid, 1850), VIII, 36, Carvajal, Regidor of Baeza, returned to Spain with Diego Colón in 1495 bearing a mark and a half of gold given him by the brothers of Columbus. As a merced he was permitted to retain this reward.Google ScholarReyes, to Carvajal, , 9 04 1495. D.I.I. 30, p. 340.Google Scholar
14 Colón, , II, 10–17;Google ScholarLas, Casas, I, 278–80.Google Scholar According to Hernando, Margarit established his force in the Vega Real, 10 leagues from Isabel, whence he wrote domineering letters to the Council until, failing to overcome them, and fearing the Admiral's return, he left in the first ships going to Spain. Hernando's version is in general accepted by Cecil, Jane, ‘Administration of the Colóns in Española, 1493–1500’, Proceedings of the Twenty-First International Congress of Americanists, First Part (The Hague 1924), pp. 381–442.Google ScholarCf., p. 386.Google Scholar
15 Colón, , 1, 370;Google ScholarLas, Casas, I, 260–278.Google Scholar
16 Las, Casas, I, 278–9.Google Scholar Also mentioned by Oviedo, , I, 48.Google Scholar
17 Colón, , I, 567.Google Scholar
18 Cited in Serrano y Sanz' excellent introduction to Hernando, Colón, Historia del Almirante p. CXXVI.Google Scholar Hernando's unreliability is so obvious as scarcely to require specific illustration. Ready examples will be found quoted in Ballesteros, , op. cit., pp. 335, 381, 472,Google Scholar and Serrano, y Sanz, pp. CLX, CXLI, CXXVII.Google Scholar
19 Las, Casas, I, 279, 298.Google Scholar
20 Màrtir, , op cit., 1, lib. 4, dec. I, 143.Google Scholar
21 D.I.I., 38, p. 313.
22 Bernaldez, , op. cit., p. 678. The news from Española was, of course, brought by Boyl and his companions. Bernaldez, el cura de Los Palacios, living as he did between Cadiz and Seville was ideally situated to hear the news from the Indies: he is known to have given lodging to Colombus and to have had access to the latter's papers.Google Scholar See Balleteros, , op. cit., pp. 17–20.Google Scholar
23 Michele, de Cuneo, Lettera. In Raccolta di documenti e studi pubblicati della R. Commissione Colombiana pel quarto centenario della scoperta dell'America (14 vols. Rome 1892–1896), Pt. III, 2, 95–107.Google Scholar
24 Colón, I, 406, 399, D.I.I., 19, pp. 509–20.Google Scholar
25 Reyes, to Fonseca, , 9 04 1495. D.I.I., 24, pp. 5–8.Google Scholar
26 Las, Casas, I, 281.Google Scholar
27 Colón, , II, 9.Google Scholar
28 Ballesteros, , p. 351.Google Scholar
29 Ibid..
30 Colón, , II, 8.Google Scholar
31 Las, Casas, I, 281.Google Scholar
32 Their partnership seems to have been of long standing. Christopher spoke of fourteen years of fruitless negotiations at the Portuguese court. Las, Casas, I, 103–4, 106.Google Scholar
33 Ibid., p. 109.
34 Ibid., pp. 109, 281. Eustaquio, Fernàndez de Navarrete, Noticias de D. Bartolomé Colón, p. 488. In C.D.I.E., XVI, 485–574.Google Scholar
35 Las, Casas, I, 281–282.Google Scholar
36 Ibid., p. 282. The non sequitur is characteristic.
37 Bartolomé's commission from the Monarchs was of limited and clearly defined scope: in effect he was simply appointed Captain of a small fleet of caravels leaving for the Indies. A royal cédula of 14 April 1494 informed the ‘masters, mates and pilots and mariners and the other officers and esquires and seamen of the caravels which we are ordering to leave for the islands newly discovered in the parts of the Indies’ that ‘— we are sending as our captain of the said caravels D. Bartolomé Colón, brother of our Admiral of the ocean sea, and we order him to set our at once, and to continue his voyage directly and with all diligence until he reaches the said islands where is the said Admiral: therefore we order you to receive and accept him in the said caravels and obey him as our captain of them, and that you do and carry our all the things that he may tell or order you on our behalf, under penalties which he may impose upon you the which for the present we impose and regard as imposed: and we give him full power to execute them upon the persons and goods of those who may fall under and incur them: and this do and perform until you are arrived at the said islands, where is the said Admiral because thenceforward you are to obey the said Admiral as you would ourselves, and do as he may on our behalf order —’. A fine of 10,000 mvds. was set for disobedience to this order. This instruction was produced by Bartolomé and included in a memorandum of 1506 containing evidence in support of his claim for ‘redeeming his honour and recovering salary due’. The remaining testimony is mainly in the form of sworn statements by eyewitnesses of his services in the Indies. It is significant that no other royal order concerning Bartolomé's duties is produced: had there been one it must assuredly have been included, as was the sweeping power of deputy issued to Bartolomé by Columbus on his departure for Spain in February 1496. Bartolomé himself was asked during the course of the hearing (Granada, 30 April 1506), ‘— if when he went to the Indies Their Highnesses ordered that any contract be made with him, to give him any stipulated wage or salary, as was done with each one of the others who went there by Their Highnesses’ command. He replied that no contract or stipulation was made beyond Their Highnesses' order that he should go to the Indies, as contained in the above-mentioned cédula of Their Highnesses'. See Fernández, de Navarrete, op. cit., pp. 559–74.Google Scholar
38 D.I.I., 21, pp. 352–363. The situation is clearly stated by Pedro, Jiménez de Góngora, Historia politica de los establecimientos ultramarinos de las naciones europeas (5 vols., Madrid 1784–1790), I, 43.Google Scholar
39 In the very apposite judgement of Harrisse, ‘cet écrivain se montre, dans ses récits des premiers temps de la découverte, d'une impartialité rare, et même unique parmi les chroniqueurs espagnols du XVe siècle. Ce n'est pas que Oviedo sok doué d'un grand sens critique mais il a puisé à des sources différentes, et, en cherchant à coordonner ses donnés, il cite des faits qui permettent au lecteur de contrôler les assertions des autres historiens’. Henry, Harrisse, Christophe Colombe, son origine, sa vie, ses voyages, sa famille, et ses descendants (2 Vols., Paris, 1864), II, 67.Google Scholar
40 Oviedo, , op cit., I, 54–5.Google Scholar
41 Ibid., pp. 47–8, 51.
42 Las, Casas, I, 299.Google Scholar
43 In his descriptions of the campaign against Caonaboa and Guarionex, Oviedo appears to confuse the Admiral with the Adelantado on more than one occasion. Cf., Oviedo, , op. cit., I, 56–57;Google ScholarLas, Casas, I, 289, passim;Google ScholarColón, , 11, 21–23.Google Scholar The numerous discrepancies in the pro-Columbus and the Oviedo accounts are deserving of fuller examination than is possible here. Gómara's contribution to the history of this affair serves only to consolidate the errors of Oviedo. He follows the latter almost exactly except that, apparently to clarify and vary the narration, he substitutes for the titles, Almirante and Adelantado the names to which these should properly refer Gómara, , op. cit., p. 170.Google Scholar Bataillon has perceptively observed a similar type of procedure elsewhere in Gómara's work. ‘It consists in suppressing everything that is awkward, and transforming into a categorical statement an explanation which his predecessor, Oviedo, had presented as doubtful or false.’ Marcel, Bataillon, ‘The idea of discovery of America among the Spaniards of the fifteenth century’, in Roger, Highfield (ed.), Spain in the Fifteenth Century (London, 1972), p. 447.Google Scholar
44 Loayza, Francisco A., Cahuide no existió (Lima, 1944), pp. 122–4.Google Scholar
45 Cristóbal, Colón, Los cuatro viajes del Almirante y su testamento (Buenos Aires, 1958), p. 159.Google Scholar
46 Ibid., p. 167. The Sovereigns responded by assigning Margarit 300,000 mvds. a year. Carlos, Seco Serrano (ed.), Obras de D. Martin Fernández de Navarrete, in B.A.E. (Madrid, 1954), I, 201.Google Scholar
47 D.I.I., 19, pp. 521−9.
48 Ibid., 24, p. 38.
49 Fernández, de Navarrete, op. cit., pp. 562–3.Google Scholar
50 Garrett, Mattingly, Renaissance Diplomacy (London, 1962), p. 63.Google Scholar
51 El DrGalíndez de Carvajal, D., ‘Anales Breves’, in B.A.E., 70 (Madrid, 1953), 535.Google Scholar
52 Loughran, E. Ward, ‘The first episcopal sees in Spanish America’, Hispanic American Historical Review, 10 (05, 1930), 167–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
53 ‘De los pleitos de Colón, vols. 7–8 of Colección de documentos inéditos relativos al descubrimiento, conquista y organización de las antiguas posesiones de ultramar(21 vols;, Madrid 1885–1920), VII, 323–4.Google ScholarFerdinand, to Diego, Colón, Burgos, 23 02 1512.Google Scholar
54 For a full exposition of the opposing viewpoint, see Ballesteros, , op. cit., pp. 253–6.Google Scholar
55 The orders included in the authorisation of general licences to explore and trade (D.I.I., 30 pp. 317, passim), instructions concerning discipline and rations (D.I.I., 24, p. 38) and the appointment of Aguado to investigate affairs in Española (D.I.I., 38, p. 325).
56 Reyes, to Bartolomé, Colón, 22 07 1497, D.I.I., 36, pp. 178–181.Google Scholar
57 Sobrequés Vidal, op. cit.; Loughran, , ‘The first vicar apostolate —’, op. cit., p. 13.Google Scholar