The Third Voyage -(Continued) - 3
At any rate there was no longer any hesitation about sending out a commissioner, and the
Sovereigns chose one Francisco de Bobadilla, an official of the royal household, for the
performance of this difficult mission. As far as we can decipher him he was a very
ordinary official personage; prejudiced, it is possible, against an administration that had
produced such disastrous results and which offended his orderly official susceptibilities;
otherwise to be regarded as a man exactly honest in the performance of what he
conceived to be his duties, and entirely indisposed to allow sentiment or any other
extraneous matter to interfere with such due performance. We shall have need to
remember, when we see him at work in Espanola, that he was not sent out to judge
between Columbus and his Sovereigns or between Columbus and the world, but to
investigate the condition of the colony and to take what action he thought necessary. The
commission which he bore to the Admiral was in the following terms:
"The King and the Queen: Don Christopher Columbus, our Admiral of the Ocean-sea.
We have directed Francisco de Bobadilla, the bearer of this, to speak to you for us of
certain things which he will mention: we request you to give him faith and credence and
to obey him. From Madrid, May 26, '99. I THE KING. I THE QUEEN. By their
command. Miguel Perez de Almazan."
In addition Bobadilla bore with him papers and authorities giving him complete control
and possession of all the forts, arms, and royal property in the island, in case it should be
necessary for him to use them; and he also had a number of blank warrants which were
signed, but the substance of which was not filled in. This may seem very dreadful to us,
with our friendship for the poor Admiral; but considering the grave state of affairs as
represented to the King and Queen, who had their duties to their colonial subjects as well
as to Columbus, there was nothing excessive in it. If they were to send out a
commissioner at all, and if they were satisfied, as presumably they were, that the man
they had chosen was trustworthy, it was only right to make his authority absolute. Thus
equipped Francisco de Bobadilla sailed from Spain in July 1500.
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