The next act of Bobadilla’s is not quite so easy to understand.  He quartered himself in Columbus’s house; that perhaps was reasonable enough since there may not have been another house in the settlement fit to receive him; but he also, we are told, took possession of all his papers, public and private, and also seized the Admiral’s store of money and began to pay his debts with it for him, greatly to the satisfaction of San Domingo.  There is an element of the comic in this interpretation of a commissioner’s powers; and it seemed as though he meant to wind up the whole Columbus business, lock, stock, and barrel.  It would not be in accordance with our modern ideas of honour that a man’s private papers should be seized unless he were suspected of treachery or some criminal act; but apparently Bobadilla regarded it as necessary.  We must remember that although he had only heard one side of the case it was evidently so positive, and the fruits of misgovernment were there so visibly before his eyes, that no amount of evidence in favour of Columbus would make him change his mind as to his fitness to govern.  Poor James, witnessing these things and unable to do anything to prevent them, finds himself suddenly relieved from the tension of the situation.  Since inaction is his note, he shall be indulged in it; and he is clapped in irons and cast into prison.  James can hardly believe the evidence of his senses.  He has been studying theology lately, it appears, with a view to entering the Church and perhaps being some day made Bishop of Espanola, but this new turn of affairs looks as though there were to be an end of all careers for him, military and ecclesiastical alike.

Christopher at Fort Concepcion had early news of the arrival of Bobadilla, but in the hazy state of his mind he did not regard it as an event of sufficient importance to make his immediate presence at San Domingo advisable.  The name of Bobadilla conveyed nothing to him; and when he heard that he had come to investigate, he thought that he came to set right some disputed questions between the Admiral and other navigators as to the right of visiting Espanola and the Paria coast.  As the days went on, however, he heard more disquieting rumours; grew at last uneasy, and moved to a fort nearer San Domingo in case it should be necessary for him to go there.  An officer met him on the road bearing the proclamations issued by Bobadilla, but not the message from the Sovereigns requiring the Admiral’s obedience to the commissioner.  Columbus wrote to the commissioner a curious letter, which is not preserved, in which he sought to gain time; excusing himself from responsibility for the condition of the island, and assuring Bobadilla that, as he intended to return to Spain almost immediately, he (Bobadilla) would have ample opportunity for exercising his command in his absence.  He also wrote to the Franciscan friars who had accompanied Bobadilla asking them to use their influence—­the Admiral having some vague connection with the Franciscan order since his days at La Rabida.