They instantly sent orders to Cadiz that Columbus should be received with all honor.  So soon as he arrived he had been able to send, to Dona Juana de la Torre, a lady high in favor at court, a private letter, in which he made a proud defense of himself.  This letter is still preserved, and it is of the first interest, as showing his own character, and as showing what were the real hardships which he had undergone.

The Lady Juana read this letter to Isabella.  Her own indignation, which probably had been kindled by the general news that Columbus had been chained, rose to the highest.  She received him, therefore, when he arrived at court, with all the more cordiality.  Ferdinand was either obliged to pretend to join with her in her indignation, or he had really felt distressed by the behavior of his subordinate.

They did not wait for any documents from Bobadilla.  As has been said, they wrote cordially to Columbus; they also ordered that two thousand ducats should be paid him for his expenses, and they bade him appear at Grenada at court.  He did appear there on the seventeenth of December, attended by an honorable retinue, and in the proper costume of a gentleman in favor with the king and queen.

When the queen met him she was moved to tears, and Columbus, finding himself so kindly received, threw himself upon his knees.  For some time he could not express himself except by tears and sobs.  His sovereigns raised him from the ground and encouraged him by gracious words.

So soon as he recovered his self-possession he made such an address as he had occasion to make more than once in his life, and showed the eloquence which is possible to a man of affairs.  He could well boast of his loyalty to the Spanish crown; and he might well say that, whether he were or were not experienced in government, he had been surrounded by such difficulties in administration as hardly any other man had had to go through.  But really, it was hardly necessary that he should vindicate himself.

The stupidity of his enemies, had injured their cause more than any carelessness of Columbus could have done.  The sovereigns expressed their indignation at Bobadilla’s proceedings, and, indeed, declared at once that he should be dismissed from command.  They never took any public notice of the charges which he had sent home; on the other hand, they received Columbus with dignity and favor, and assured him that he should be reinstated in all his privileges.

The time at which he arrived was, in a certain sense, favorable for his future plans, so far as he had formed any.  On the other hand, the condition of affairs was wholly changed from what it was when he began his great discoveries, and the changes were in some degree unfavorable.  Vasco da Gama had succeeded in the great enterprise by which he had doubled the Cape of Good Hope, had arrived at the Indies by the route of the Indian ocean, and his squadron had successfully returned.