about three leagues, when a messenger from Guacanagari begged him to come on shore and visit him. Melchor found him in his hammock, apparently sick, surrounded by seven women in as many beds. He confirmed the accounts already given with respect to Coanabo, shewed his thigh wrapped up in a cotton bandage, and said he received that wound, in assisting the Spaniards. He presented Melchor, and the principal persons who accompanied him, with several pieces of gold, and expressed an anxious wish to see the admiral; who, as soon as he was informed of his wish, waited on him with a splendid retinue. Guacanagari with tears lamented the fate of the Spaniards; and as a proof of friendship, gave the admiral, several curiously wrought girdles, a cup set with jewels, and three gourds filled with grains of gold, worth about five marks.

The admiral, however, suspected him of duplicity; the surgeon of the fleet, in the presence of Doctor Chanca, examined the leg, but not the least trace of wound or bruise was visible. Columbus con

cealed his suspicions, had him on board, and gave him several presents, and dismissed him the same day; the sight of the horses very much surprised him. Many of the Spaniards thought he ought to have been kept prisoner; and what happened the following night confirmed them in this opinion. Among others that came to traffic was Guacanagari's brother; he was seen speaking to ten of the women rescued from the Caribs, who soon after secretly attempted to swim on shore; the boats could only retake four of them, and next day the district was deserted. This increased their suspicions, and many insisted that Guacanagari should be pursued, and if possible punished; but the admiral chose conciliatory measures; and dispatched Captain Maldonado, with 300 men after the cazique, and to examine the country; as he wanted to land the men and live stock. Maldonado travelled by the shore to Port Royal. At a little distance from the harbour they found about thirty well built houses, in a circle round one larger than the rest; it was circular, and thirty paces in diameter, the ceiling wainscotted, and ornamented, with coloured reeds tastefully interwoven. As they approached, an old Indian, with 100 warriors drawn up in order of battle, were ready to receive them; signals of peace were exchanged, and then the Spaniards learned that the Indian was cazique of the district, and that Guacanagari had gone to the mountains. Maldonado returned with this intelligence to the fleet, which on the 7th of December sailed from Navidad to Monte Christi, intending to establish a colony at the harbour of Plata; here he found the river too shallow, and he therefore stood to the westward back again, to a deeper river that fell into the sea, on the west side of a tongue of land, forming a spacious port, sheltered from the prevailing winds, but open to the N.W. The latter end of December the fleet anchored in this place; they found it well calculated for a colony, the country level, a village within gun-shot of the river, and plenty of stones; the back

was guarded with impenetrable woods, and a rock below the harbour was well calculated to be made into a fortress; fish were in abundance, the soil was fruitful, and, according to the Indians' account, the valley along the banks of the river reached to Cibao.

66

1494.

Here Columbus, in the name of the Most Holy Trinity, laid the foundation of a town, and, in honour of his patron Queen, called it Isabella; Pedro Fernandez Coronel was appointed Chief Justice; Antonio de Torres, brother to the Prince Don Juan's nurse, had the command of the fort; and on the 6th January 1494, the festival of the Epiphany, mass was celebrated by thirteen priests in the new chapel. All the public buildings were of stone; the private ones of wood, covered with leaves and grass; the whole were built with the greatest dispatch. Several sorts of seeds were sown, that grew rapidly and luxuriantly. The Indians were filled with admiration, and obeyed the Spaniards with the greatest willingness and respect. Peter Martyr says, " Upon a high hill on the north side of the island he builded a city, because this place was most apt for that purpose, by reason of a mine of stones which was near unto the same, serving well both to build with, and also to make lime. At the bottom of this hill there is a great plain, of threescore miles in length, and in breadth somewhere twelve, somewhere twenty miles where it is broadest, and six miles where it is narrowest; through this plain run divers fair rivers of wholesome waters; but the greatest of them, which is navigable, falleth into the haven of the city for the space of half a furlong. How fertile and fruitful this valley is, you shall understand by these things which follow. On the shore of this river they have limited and enclosed certain ground, to make gardens and orchards, in the which all kind of bigger herbs, as radish, lettuce, coleworts, borage and such other, wax ripe, within sixteen days after the seed is sown; likewise melons, gourds, cucumbers, and such other, within the space of thirty six days: these garden herbs they have fresh and green all the whole year. Also the roots of the canes or reeds, of the liquor whereof sugar is made, grow a cubit high within the space of fifteen days; but the liquor is not yet hardened. The like they affirm of plants or shrouds of young vines; and that they have the second year gathered ripe and sweet grapes of the same; but by reason of too much rankness, they bear but few clusters. Furthermore, a man of the country sowed a little wheat about the calends of February, and brought with him to the city a handful of the ripe ears of the same, the third day before the calends of April, which was that year the vigil of the Resurrection of our Lord. Also, all kinds of pulse, as beans, pease, fitches, tares, and such other, are ripe twice in the year; as all they

which come from thence affirm with one voice yet the ground is not universally apt to bear wheat.' In the meantime, while these things were doing, the admiral sent out a company of thirty men, to search the region of Cipanga, otherwise called Cibana," which it was understood lay three days march in the interior. The command was given to Gorvalon and Ojeda. In six days they had travelled about twenty leagues to the southward; the two first through an uninhabited district, afterwards through a very difficult pass; they then crossed the Yaque, which flows to the westward, through a luxuriant valley, and found themselves at the foot of a high chain of mountains, which run across the island, through the middle of the province of Cibao, which signifies stony, and abounds with flint. Rivers flow in all directions from these mountains, through fertile vallies; and gold is found in the sands of all.

The report of the commanders, on their return, raised the spirits of the colonists; and the admiral resolved, as soon as the wall round the town should be finished, to go in person to Cibao, and establish a settlement there. But first he sent thirteen sail, under the command of Torres, to Spain, with a report of the colony, and a list of things wanted for its maintenance. From the rapid vegetation of the wheat, vines, and sugar canes, he stated the climate as rivalling that of Sicily and Andalusia: he was persuaded spices would be found in abundance. The second bark of the aromatic laurel, he fancied was cinnamon: and from the gold mines, he hoped soon to gain immense treasures. He sent what gold he had gained by barter, and specimens of fruits; also some Caribbean men and women, to be instructed in Spain, and afterwards employed as interpreters. The language, in all the islands hitherto found, was alike, though with a considerable diversity of dialect. The Caribs were the best acquainted with all, and therefore best calculated for interpreters; but as a punishment for their cannibalism, he intended to employ them as slaves: he thought them more useful, than any that could be brought from Africa; and it would be a popular thing with the more pacific tribes. He represented the necessity of a speedy supply of horses; particularly recommended some of his officers, and made strong complaints of the disobedience and negligence of others. The fleet sailed the 2d of February.

Columbus was soon afterwards taken ill; and a party of mutineers, headed by Bernal Diaz de Pisa (the chief accountant), formed a plot to set off for Spain, with five ships which the admiral kept in

Munoz, p. 341. 344.

'Wheat in Hispaniola." The like increase cometh of wheat if it be sown upon the mountains, where the cold is of some strength; but not in the same plains, by reason of too much fatness and rankness of the ground. It is in manner incredible to hear, that an ear of wheat should be bigger

than a span in length, bearing also more than a thousand grains, as they all confess with one voice, and earnestly affirm the same with others."-Peter Martyr, D.3. C. 7. p. 134.

P. Martyr confounds here the maize with the common wheat.

the harbour, and a list of grievances as charges against him. Columbus discovered the plot, arrested Diaz, punished his chief accomplices, ordered every thing out of the ships into one under the care of persons upon whom he could depend, and, having thus nipped the evil in the bud, upon the 12th of March, with 400 men and the horses, with a number of Indians, set out for the gold mines.

After travelling about four leagues, they arrived at the difficult pass through the mountains, which Columbus named Puerto de los Hidalgos, because the gentry led the way. From the summit they had a view of the vale, which extends from the bay of Samana to Monte Christi, watered by numberless rivulets, that form several rivers. The admiral named this delightful plain Vega Real (the Royal Vale), and marched his troops through it in squadrons, with colours flying, and to the sound of trumpets. Most of the inhabitants fled; but many offered presents, in awe and admiration. When they reached the mountains, they marched with difficulty over barren ground, covered with blue stones. The Cibaos brought provisions and grains of gold, some weighing more than an ounce, and told them, that half a day's journey off pieces were often found weighing twenty-five pounds. Juan de Lujan, whom he had sent with some soldiers to explore the country, confirmed this.

Columbus determined to take possession of this province; and upon an eminence, eighteen leagues from Isabella, on the River Xanique, he ordered a fort to be built; and, because the men would not believe there was gold in the island before they saw it, he named it St. Thomas. Upon the side where it was not encompassed by the river they dug a ditch. Pedro Margarita, with fifty-six men, and some horses, were left here; and on the 29th of March Columbus returned to Isabella.' Soon afterwards a messenger arrived with the intelligence, that the Indians had withdrawn from the

Munoz, vol. i. p. 353.

1 Pedro Margarita, with about thirty men in the fortress of San Thomas, near the mines of Cibao, suffered the same miseries with those in Isabella, because they also were in want of provisions and had many sick, and endured those labours which the first settlers in such distant lands are obliged to encounter, and so rude and difficult for those who have been far otherwise brought up, and for these reasons those that were in this fortress died, and every day decreased their numbers, because they were too few to sally from the fortress, and to leave the knight alone was a bad proof of the attachment they owed him. The admiral was out of the island upon discoveries, as has been said. Those that were in Isabella with the Adelantado Don Bartholomew had so much hard work, that they were not worth

adjacent lands, those that could, had escaped from the famine, in such a manner that the alcaide and his men were in a hard case. One day an Indian came to the castle, because, as he said, the alcaide, “Mossen Pedro Margarite," appeared to him a truly good man, that neither did or consented that others should do any violence or ill to the Indians or natives of that land; and this Indian brought a pair of live doves as a present for the alcaide, for which Pedro Margarite paid him with glass beads, which the Indians prized very much to wear round their necks. The alcaide then said to the Christians with him in the castle, that those doves were too little for all of them to eat of. They all replied, that for the whole of them that present was nothing, but he might pass that day upon those doves, and had most

country, and that Caonabo intended to attack the fort. Sixty men, with ammunition and provisions, were sent to reinforce it. To spread the terror of the Spanish arms, and accustom the men to live upon the produce of the country; every disposable person was sent about the island; and, because the labourers were sick, the admiral ordered that the Hidalgos, should grind, their scanty allowances of wheat themselves; provisions were grown so scarce, that the allowance for the sick was sometimes only an egg and some boiled garvanzos. There was a want of medicines too; and many persons of rank, unaccustomed to, and not anticipating, hardships, died in consequence thereof. All faults were punished by a diminution of rations; and this occasioned discontent.

On the 9th of April, Ojeda, with 400 men and sixteen horses was sent to St. Thomas's; and Pedro Margarita, with his troops, was ordered to seize Caonabo and his brother, of whose ferocity every day brought fresh accounts. Under the pretext of carrying the clothes of three Spaniards across the Gold River, some Indians stole them. Upon the refusal of their cazique either to punish the men or give back the clothes, Ojeda ordered the ears of an Indian to be cut off, seized the cazique, and his brother, and cousin, and sent them to the admiral, who condemned them to death; but, at the intercession of a friendly cazique, pardoned them.

On the 24th of April, the admiral sailed with the Nina, San Juan, and Cardera; leaving his brother as governor; and Boil, Pedro Fernandez, Coronal, Alonzo Sanchez de Carvajal, and Juan de Luxan, counsellors.

At Navidad he inquired for Guacanagari, but did not see him. Off Tortuga the wind became foul, and obliged him to anchor in the river Guadalquiver. On the 29th he was off Cape Nicholas, and crossed over to Bayortiquiri, or Cuba, keeping along its south side. He anchored in Puerto Grande, or Guantanamo, where the inhabitants ran away: but Diego Colon, a Lucayan, persuaded them to return.

Presents were given them; and in answer to the inquiries for gold, they pointed south. Upon the 2d of May, he discovered Jamaica; and, on the 5th, anchored on its north side, in a port which, from its beautiful appearance, he named Santa Gloria, now Santa Anna. Four leagues to the westward, he anchored for three days, and named the place Puerto Bueno. Here,

Munoz, vol. i. p. 353.

of them; "Never, please God," said the alcaide, "will I do what you say. I have partaken of all your wants and fatigues from the time I joined you, and will do so living or dying, till these days shall be passed, when all of us shall die of hunger or all shall be succoured;" and, saying these words, he untied the doves, and from a window of the tower let them go. With this they all remained as contented and satisfied, as if he had to

every one of them given the birds.- Oviedo, L. 2. C. 13.

Charlevoix gives a very different account of Margarite's conduct at this time; he says, "Se retira dans le Fort St. Thomas, et laissa a ses gens une liberté entiere de se procurer par toutes sortes des voyes des secours contre le faim que les pressoit."- Charlevoix, t. i. p. 166.