"The reason for this was his exhaustion from the great hardships he had suffered and his weakness from lack of food. He was afflicted by a serious illness, something between an infectious fever and a lethargy, which suddenly blinded him, dulled his other senses and took away his memory."It's been suggested he suffered from some form of nervous breakdown. Three ships returned to Isabela on the north coast of Hispaniola. There, over some time, Columbus returned to health but 'the illness did not abate for five months.' Hernan Colon the son, then used this opportunity to skim over and jot down various details, encounters, and even make some observations on the indigenous peoples.
The brother Don Bartolome had returned to Hispaniola saying that King Charles VIII of France had sent Columbus 100 escudos for his trip, but they had already left. He had also received a charge from Queen Isabela, then at Valladolid to go with three ships to the new world. It must have been quite a relief for Columbus to see his brother. He named him adelantado or military governor of the Indies. The locals had risen in revolt due to the 'misconduct' of Pedro Margalit, the man left in charge on Hispaniola.
Margalit had been ordered with his men to patrol the island and support the few camps they had and quell any disturbances. Colon, the son tells us that this is what Margalit did not do.
"On the contrary, by his fault quarrels and factions arose in Isabela. He tried to persuade the council, which the Admiral had formed there, to obey him, and most shamelessly sent them his orders.
On finding that he could not make himself supreme commander, he decided not to wait for the Admiral, to whom he would have to make a complete account of his office, and with his men boarded one of the first ships to come from Castile, in which he returned home without giving any account of himself or reducing the population to order according to his instructions. As a result every Spaniard went out among the Indians [sic] robbing and siezing their women wherever he pleased, and doing the such injuries that they decided to take vengeance on any Spaniards they found isolated or unarmed. The cacique of Magdalena, whose name was Guatigana, killed ten Christians and secretly ordered the firing of a house in which forty men lay sick."This chief was not captured but several of his men were and sent back to Castile with Antonio de Torres on the ship that left February 24, 1495. Other chiefs were punished in retribution to what they had done to Christians and a great number were killed. The numbers of the dead were not recorded by Columbus or his son. But his son does say Columbus found the island in 'a bad state':
"... the Christians were committing innumerable outrages for which they were mortally hated by the Indians [sic] and ...[who] were refusing to return to obedience. All the caciques and kings had agreed not to resume to obedience, and this agreement had not been difficult [as] ... there were only four principal rulers under whose soverignty all the rest lived."Things came to a head and Columbus and Bartolome resorted to military means to put the population down. It seems quite clear, even from the mostly glowing reports from the son of Columbus, that the problems had originated from the Christians that were then living in such a foreign land.
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quotes, from pp. 184-88 in: The Four Voyages, Christopher Columbus, edited, translated and with an introduction by JM Cohen, 1969 and for The Penguin Group, London, 1969
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