We pray you give him faith and credence, and act accordingly.
* * * * *
Christopher, however, was not permitted to give the royal commissioner
faith and credence, for the simple reason that Bobadilla did not show
him the letter. We have already read of the high-handed manner in which
Juan de Agnado acted some years before when sent out to investigate;
but, by comparison with Bobadilla, Agnado had been gentleness itself.
Bobadilla was a stern and rigorous churchman, comendador, or commander,
of one of the famous religious-military orders in Spain. He could
tolerate nothing short of the strictest and most unquestioning obedience
to authority. He also had a great respect for high birth, and he, like
Bishop Fonseca, could never forget that Christopher Columbus was of
humble origin. Both Fonseca and Bobadilla would have been astounded had
they dreamed that their principal claim to remembrance by coming ages
would be from their reluctant association with a certain illustrious man
"of humble origin."
It was on August 23, 1499, that Bobadilla's ship entered the mouth of
the little river on which San Domingo was situated; and on seeing on
either side of the settlement a gallows, and on either gallows the body
of a high-born Spaniard lately executed for rebellion, the sight did not
incline him to feel kindly toward the low-born governor who had executed
them.
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