They arrived at Hispaniola in March, of the year 1493, only to discover that the men left behind on the first voyage to secure their settlement were all despoiled or murdered; that the natives had proved treacherous, or that the Spaniards had abused their confidence and forfeited their friendship.

X. Account of the Voyage home from Hispaniola to Lisbon.

The original design of Columbus to sail westwards to India, which he erroneously supposed to be vastly nearer in that direction, led him accidentally almost to discover Hispaniola on the supposed route to Cipango or Japan.

In 1509, Don Diego Columbus, the second admiral of New Spain, went to the island of Hispaniola with his wife and household; and she, being a noble woman, carried with her many ladies of good families, who were there married; by which means the Spaniards began to multiply in their new colony, and Hispaniola became famous and much frequented.

Manumission took place as well in Hispaniola as on the Continent; but on the return of Gasca to Spain, and the retirement of Charles into a monastery, slavery was revived.

Wherefore the admiral resolved to depart for Hispaniola without delay, that he might forward supplies for this place.

For this reason, and that neither they nor any others might have reason to complain of him, or to say that he kept them in Hispaniola by force, he issued a proclamation on the twelfth of September, granting leave to all who were inclined to return into Spain, and promising them a free passage and provisions for the voyage.

As it was, he "only opened the gates," to use his own language, for others more fortunate than himself; and, before he quitted Hispaniola for the last time, the young adventurer arrived there, who was destined by the conquest of Mexico to realize all the magnificent visions, which had been derided only as visions, in the lifetime of Columbus.

No remedy against this kind of poison was then known, and it was only later that the islanders of Hispaniola revealed it; for there exists an herb in Hispaniola of which the juice, if administered in time, counteracts the poison of the arrows.

Bainoa begins at the frontier of Cahibo, and extends as far as the island of Cahini, almost touching the north coast of Hispaniola at the place where the colony was once founded.

The other unworthy favourite of the bishop was Bernard de Santa Clara, whom he appointed treasurer of Hispaniola under the government of Obando, another of the bishop's worthy favourites.

It is natural to begin this chapter with some account of the progress of the Spaniards in Hispaniola after the settlement of a regular government, by which the value of the discovery became apparent; as owing to the great wealth derived from this colony at the first, the Spaniards were excited to continue their discoveries.

From the appearance of this fish, and by other tokens in the sky, the admiral suspected an approaching storm, and took shelter therefore within an island called Adamanoy by the Indians, but which the Spaniards name Saona, which is about two leagues in length, having a strait between it and Hispaniola about a league in breadth.