Columbus assumed Paria was an island
and christened it Isla de García. A year later,
Alfonso de Ojeda’s expedition would name the
same land Venezuela. In a letter to the Spanish
sovereigns that reflected his idiosyncratic
mixing of geographical theory with Christian
mysticism, Columbus claimed that this was
the “Terrestrial Paradise,” the Garden of Eden.
“I have always read that the world, both land
and water, was spherical,” he added. “I have
found that it does not have the kind of
sphericity described by the authorities, but
that it has the shape of a pear, which is all very
round, except at the stem.”
Columbus headed north to Hispaniola,
where he found his brothers fighting a faction
of rebellious colonists. News of this rebellion
and plentiful advice from Columbus’s enemies
convinced Ferdinand and Isabella that their
admiral’s talents for seamanship were not
matched by his abilities as administrator. They
dispatched a new governor, Francisco de
Bobadilla, to Hispaniola with broad powers to
investigate and end any rebellion. Bobadilla
arrived at Santo Domingo in Hispaniola on
August 23, 1500. When Columbus refused to
accept the royal document appointing
Bobadilla, the new governor had all three
Columbus brothers arrested, chained, and
shipped back to Spain. The Spanish monarchs
were shocked by Columbus’s humiliation.
They ordered him freed and eventually
ordered his property restored, but decided that
his role as governor of the Indies was over.COLUMBUS’S
FINAL VOYAGE
By 1502 Columbus’s reputation was in tatters
and the privileges outlined in his “capitulations”
with the Spanish Crown were increasingly
restricted. The Spanish royals neverthelessThe Four Voyages of Columbus B 35
Disease in the New World =
Disease was the most destructive force arriving in the Americas with European
explorers and colonists. Exposure to smallpox, diphtheria, whooping cough,
influenza, tuberculosis, pneumonia, mumps, and even measles had allowed
Europeans to develop some natural resistance to such maladies. The inhabi-
tants of the Americas, however, had never been exposed to these potentially
fatal diseases, which did more to decimate Native populations than forced
labor and war combined. Estimated deaths from epidemics alone among South
American natives in the first hundred years after 1492 range from hundreds of
thousands into the millions.
One disease that may have moved in the other direction is syphilis, which
Europeans became aware of only in the mid-1490s. But scientists continue to
debate whether syphilis existed in the Old World before 1492 or whether it was
first imported to Europe by Columbus’s crew or the Taino captives his first voy-
age brought to Barcelona. Similarly, scientists continue to examine the origins
of malaria and yellowfever. These mosquito-borne diseases are considered to
have arrived in the Americas from Africa, after the importation of African slaves
began in the early 1500s.\