Columbus, having regained the confidence of his Sovereigns, started on his third voyage in the beginning of 1496.  On this occasion he discovered Trinidad, coasted along the borders of Guiana, and saw for the first time the Islands of Cubagua and Margarita.  In Haiti the Admiral found a discontented community.  His two brothers, Bartholomew and Diego, had become unpopular with the Spaniards, who were chafing beneath their authority.  The arrival of Columbus caused a temporary lull in the disputes, but after a while the power of the malcontents grew steadily, and their accounts of what was to the fore in Haiti, although wilfully garbled and exaggerated, began to bear weight with the Royal Family of Spain.

Columbus, in the first instance, had stipulated for the sole command of the fleets of the New World.  This was well enough in theory, but in practice the concession was almost immediately broken into.  Other expeditions started out from Spain to the New World.  Alonso Ojeda, who had accompanied Columbus on his second voyage, now came out in command of an expedition of his own.  In his company was Amerigo Vespucci, whose graphic and fanciful account of his own particular doings resulted eventually in the naming of the entire continent after him.  In 1499 Alonso Nino led an expedition out from Spain, followed shortly after by another commanded by Pinzon.  In the meantime Brazil was being explored by the great Portuguese, Pedro Alvarez Cabral.

To return to Columbus, the glory of the great navigator had now waned.  As the years intervened between the date of his great feat and his less glorious present, his record became stale and forgotten, while the power and influence of his enemies grew.  In the year 1500 Columbus was sent to Spain—­in chains this time.  On his arrival Ferdinand and Isabella, shocked at this state of affairs, endeavoured to make some minor reparation to the greatest man of his age.  They were nevertheless firm in refusing to allow him to continue as Governor of Hispaniola and the new territories, and to this post was appointed Nicolas de Ovando.

This latter took out the first really imposing expedition which had set sail for Hispaniola.  The welfare of the Indians had been strictly committed to his charge by Ferdinand and Isabella.  Numerous humane laws had been drawn up for the protection of the natives, and these, it was intended, should be rigidly enforced.  Nevertheless, the thousands of miles of intervening ocean rapidly deprived these of any semblance of authority, and the misery and mortality of the men of Hispaniola continued unabated.