mountains
of Cibao, and passing over the first range found themselves in a little
valley at the foot of the hills where a river wound round a fertile plain
and there was ample accommodation for an encampment. There were the
usual signs of gold, and Columbus saw in the brightly coloured stones of
the river-bed evidence of unbounded wealth in precious stones. At last
he had come to the place! He who had doubted so much, and whose faith
had wavered, had now been led to a place where he could touch and handle
the gold and jewels of his desire; and he therefore called the place
Saint Thomas. He built a fort here, leaving a garrison of fifty-six men
under the command of Pedro Margarite to collect gold from the natives,
and himself returned to Isabella, which he reached at the end of March.

Enforced absence from the thing he has organised is a great test of
efficiency in any man. The world is full of men who can do things
themselves; but those who can organise from the industry of their men a
machine which will steadily perform the work whether the organiser is
absent or present are rare indeed. Columbus was one of the first class.
His own power and personality generally gave him some kind of mastery
over any circumstances in which he was immediately concerned; but let him
be absent for a little time, and his organisation went to pieces. No one
was better than he at conducting a one-man concern; and his conduct of
the first voyage, so long as he had his company under his immediate
command, was a model of efficiency. But when the material under his
command began to grow and to be divided into groups his life became a
succession of ups and downs. While he was settling and disciplining one
group mutiny and disorder would attack the other; and when he went to
attend to them, the first one immediately fell into confusion again. He
dealt with the discontent in Isabella, organising the better disposed
part of it in productive labour, and himself marching the malcontents
into something like discipline and order, leaving them at Saint Thomas,
as we have seen, usefully collecting gold. But while he was away the
people at Isabella had got themselves into trouble again, and when he
arrived there on the morning of March 29th he found the town in a
deplorable condition. The lake beside which the city had been built, and
which seemed so attractive and healthy a spot, turned out to be nothing
better than a fever trap. Drained