Meanwhile, the colonizing Spaniards themselves began to divide against one another, and especially against the government of Columbus’s brother, Diego, whom he’d put in charge at Isabella. Some, returning to Spain from Hispaniola, complained against Columbus at court. Their reports made Hispaniola out to be something of a bust—no contact had been made with the great rulers of Japan or China, no great source of gold had been found, no valuable trade routes had been established, the island was brimming with rebellion (both native and Spanish), and the Columbus brothers were being charged with severe mismanagement. To this could be added Isabella’s displeasure that Columbus had mistreated and enslaved the natives—something she had expressly forbidden him to do; she’d even ordered the release of those American Indians he’d brought back to Spain after his first voyage. (By enslaving the natives, Columbus was acting according to a long-held European tradition of enslaving non-Christian war captives; Ferdinand and Isabella themselves had done likewise during the Reconquista. But the Christianizing of the American Indians was clearly possible—and thus Isabella wrestled with the morality of enslaving or otherwise mistreating them. These questions tormented her to the day of her death in 1504).
But the Portuguese were at that very moment outfitting one Vasco da Gama—who was hoping to sail all the way to India by sea around Africa. Perhaps this is why, when Columbus returned to Spain in 1496 to defend himself against his detractors, the Catholic Monarchs allowed him to retain his position vis-a-vis the newly-discovered western territories. A third Columbus-led expedition set out from Spain in 1498. This time Columbus actually laid eyes on the Venezuelan coastline—i.e. the American mainland.
But upon reaching Hispaniola again, Columbus found that the colony his other brother, Bartholomew, had set up (Santo Domingo) was as divided as Isabella had been. The Spanish colonists were still suspicious of—and often hostile to—Columbus and his brothers (seen as foreign overlords). Columbus tried to reach a compromise with the rebels, but failed. In 1500, a royal official was dispatched to the Indies from Spain to investigate; ultimately, Columbus was sent back to Spain in chains, humiliated. No longer would the great Genoese explorer be “Viceroy of the Indies.” Making it official, in 1502 the Catholic Monarchs sent a royal governor, Nicolás de Ovando, to administer the region instead.
Columbus still had one great voyage in him. The same year that Ovando was sent to govern what would soon be called the Spanish Indies, Christopher Columbus was outfitted for a fourth expedition. His quest, as always, was to find a direct sea route to Asia. In the process, he mapped the coastline of much of Central America—including what we call Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Costa Rica.
But when he died in 1506, Christopher Columbus was still convinced he had discovered islands and peninsulas off of east Asia.
