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Case Reopened: An Enquiry into the ‘Defection’ of Fray Bernal Boyl and Mosén Pedro Margarit
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2009
Extract
Perhaps the most fateful occurrence in Columbus' unlucky career as Governor of Española was the collapse of the governmental arrangements established by him in April 1494. The actual events which led to, and immediately followed, this episode have been shrouded in doubt and confusion from that time to this. The accepted version, repeated by one historian after another since the early 16th century, is however, plain enough: it is to the effect that Columbus, prior to sailing from Española in April to search out the Mainland, appointed a Council of Regency to govern the infant colony until his return. After a wearisome and almost fatal voyage, he returned to Isabela in the following September to find that two of the leading members of the settlement, Pedro Margarit, his military commander, and Fray Boyl, one of the Council and the ecclesiastical head of the settlement, had treacherously deserted and returned to Spain.
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References
1 Bartolomé, de Las Casas, Historia de las Indias (ed. Juan, Pérez de Tudela Bueso), Biblioteca de Autores Españoles, Vols. XCV—XCVI (Madrid 1957), 1, 244, 263;Google ScholarManuel, Serrano y Sanz, Origines de la dominación española en América (Madrid 1918), Chap. VII, pp. 232–43;Google ScholarFernando, del Pulgar, Crónica de los Reyes Católicos (ed. Juan, de Mata Carriazo), (2 vols, Madrid 1943), II, 221–2;Google ScholarJerónimo, Zurita, Historia del Rey Don Hernando el Catholico (2 vols., Zaragoza MDLXXX), 1, fo. 4;Google ScholarSantiago, Sobrequés Vidal, ‘Algo sobre el origen de Pedro Margarit’, Revista de Indias, 12 (1952), 320–334.Google Scholar Cardinal Margarit is the subject of a warmly appreciative biographical sketch in Vespasiano's memoirs. See Vespasiano, , Renaissance Princes, Popes and Prelates. (Trans. William, George and Emily, Walters) (New York 1963), pp. 146–153.Google Scholar
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