Only eight years after Christopher...
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Only eight years after Christopher Columbus proved it could be done, Francisco de Bobadilla sailed from Spain to Santa Domingo in the name of Ferdinand and Isabella. And in the name of Ferdinand and Isabella he arrested the governor of the colony and his two brothers, and had them clapped in irons and returned to Spain. Actually, Bobadilla was overreacting. The governor was quelling a rebellion, too little, too late, and failing. But these actions showed that the governor did not have political skills. Except for one shrewd move. Put on board ship in chains, the captain of the ship offered to remove the governor's chains. The governor said he would wear the chains until Ferdinand and Isabella themselves removed them. He wore the chains for two and a half months, on shipboard and then as a spectacle in Cadiz and Seville, before the crown had them removed in Granada, on December 12. His funds and title were restored, but not the office of governor. He was not a good governor, or even a very good colonist. But he was very good at something else, and he should have stuck to that. For the old and arthritic and out of favor governor was a great navigator, a brave and fearless sailor whose skill in managing ships and people on ships was unmatched at a time when most of the world wasn't even on the map. He wrote of this incident, "God our Lord is present with his strength and wisdom, as of old, and in the end especially punisheth ingratitude and injuries." The governor was Christopher Columbus.
-- Mosley
-- Mosley
