This was not what Bobadilla had reckoned upon.  He had expected to find things in such a bad way that he would have to take matters into his own hand at once, and become a greater man than the Admiral.  If everything was all right he would have his journey for nothing and everybody would laugh at him.  So he determined to go ahead, even though there was no necessity for his taking charge of affairs.  He had been sent to do certain things, and he did them at once.  Without asking Columbus for his advice or his assistance, he took possession of the forts and told every one that he was governor now.  He said that he had come to set things straight, and he listened to the complaints of all the black sheep of the colony—­and how they did crowd around him and say the worst things they could think of against the Admiral they had once been so anxious to follow.

Bobadilla listened to all their stories.  He proceeded to use the power the king and queen had given him to punish and disgrace Columbus—­which was not what they meant him to do.  He moved into the palace of the Admiral; he ordered the Admiral and his brothers to come to him, and when they came expecting to talk things over, Bobadilla ordered that they be seized as prisoners and traitors, that they be chained hand and foot and put in prison.

Columbus’s saddest day had come.  The man who had found a new world for his king and queen, who had worked so hard in their service and who had meant to do right, although he had made many mistakes, was thrust into prison as if he were a thief or a murderer.  The Admiral of the Ocean Seas, the Viceroy of the Indies, the grand man whom all Spain had honored and all the world had envied, was held as a prisoner in the land he had found, and all his powers were taken by a stranger.  He was sick, he was disappointed, he was defeated in all his plans.  And now he was in chains.  His third voyage had ended the worst of all.  He had sailed away to find Cathay; he had, so he believed, found the Garden of Eden and the river of Paradise.  And here, as an end to it all, he was arrested by order of the king and queen he had tried to serve, his power and position were taken from him by an insolent and unpitying messenger from Spain; he was thrown into prison and after a few days he was hurried with his brothers on board a ship and sent to Spain for trial and punishment.  How would it all turn out?  Was it not a sad and sorry ending to his bright dreams of success?

CHAPTER XI.  HOW THE ADMIRAL CAME AND WENT AGAIN.

I suppose you think Bobadilla was a very cruel man.  He was.  But in his time people were apt to be cruel to one another whenever they had the power in their own hands.  The days in which Columbus lived were not like these in which we are living.  You can never be too thankful for that, boys and girls.  Bobadilla had been told to go over the water and set the Columbus matters straight.  He had been brought