Both Ferdinand and Isabella made him feel, instantly, that,
whatever had gone wrong, they knew his worth and considered him a
distinguished man.
So overcome was he by this magnanimity that it was some minutes before
the white-haired, worn-out man could control his feelings sufficiently
to tell his story. Finally, however, he managed to speak. He admitted
all that had gone amiss in Espanola and said his only excuse was his
inexperience in governing. (Ah, good Admiral, if only you had remembered
your inexperience on that January day in that same city of Granada, when
you insisted on being made Viceroy of all the lands you might discover!)
The queen, while she pitied Columbus profoundly in his distress, was too
wise a woman to let her pity run away with her prudence; so she answered
cautiously:--
"Common report accuses you of acting with a degree of severity quite
unsuitable for an infant colony, and likely to incite rebellion in it.
But the thing I find hardest to pardon is your reducing to slavery many
Indians who had done nothing to deserve such a fate. This was contrary
to my express orders. As ill fortune willed it, just at the time that
news came to me of this breach of my instructions, everybody was
complaining of you; no one spoke a word in your favor.
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