Nevertheless, one of the
first communications from Puerto Rico that was laid before him was a
memorial written by one Arango, accusing Velasquez, among other
things, of having given Indians to soldiers and to common people,
instead of to conquerors and married men. "In Lent," says the accuser,
"he goes to a grange, where he remains without hearing mass on
Sundays, eating meat, and saying things against the faith ..."
The immediate effect of these complaints and mutual accusations was
the suspension in his functions of Diego Columbus and the appointment
of a triumvirate of Jerome friars to govern these islands. This was
followed two years later by the return of Bishop Manso to San Juan,
armed with the dreadful powers of General Inquisitor of the Indies and
by the nomination of licentiate Antonio de la Gama as judge auditor of
the accounts of Sancho Velasquez. The judge found him guilty of
partiality and other offenses, and on June 12, 1520, wrote to the
regent: "I have not sent the accounts of Sancho Velasquez, because it
was necessary that he should go with them, but the bishop of this
island has taken him for the Holy Inquisition _and he has died in
prison_."
The Jerome fathers on their way to la Espanola, in 1516, touched at
what they describe as "the port of Puerto Rico, which is in the island
of San Juan de Boriquen," and the treasurer, Haro, wrote of them on
January 21, 1518: " .
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