frond of San Domingo showed. Eighteen ships
in harbor, and fifteen, they said, going to Spain, and around and upon
them all bustle of preparation. One saw in fancy Bobadilla and Roldan
and Gwarionex and the much gold, including that piece of virgin ore
weighing five thousand castellanos. Fifteen ships preparing for Spain,
and San Domingo, of which the Adelantado had laid first stone, and a
strange, green, sunset sky. And the _Consolacion_, the _Margarita_, the
Juana and the _San Sebastian_ away to the west, to the sound of music,
for the Admiral cried to our musicians, "Play, play in God's name!"

Night passed. Morning broke. So light was the wind that the shore went
by slowly. There gathered an impatience. "If we must to Jamaica, what
use in following every curve of Hispaniola that is forbid us?" At noon
the wind almost wholly failed, then after three hours of this rose with
a pouncing suddenness to a good breeze. We rounded a point thronged with
palms. Before us a similar point, and between the two that bent gently
each to the other, slept a deep and narrow bight. "Enter here," said the
Admiral.

We anchored. There was again a strange sunset, green and gold in the
lower west, but above an arc of clouds dressed in saffron and red. And
now we could hear, though from very far off, a deep and low murmur, and
whether it was the forest or the sea or both we did not know. But now
all the old mariners said there would be storm, and we were glad of the
little bay between the protecting horns. The Admiral named it Bay of
Comfort. The _Consolacion_ _Margarita_, _Juana_, _San Sebastian_, lay
under bare masts, deep within the bight.

The next day, an hour before noon, arrived that king hurricane.

They are known now, these storms of Europe's west and Asia's east. Take
all our Mediterranean storms and heap them into one!

Through the day our anchors held in our Bay of Comfort, and we blessed
our Admiral. But at eve the _Margarita_, the _Juana_ and the _San
Sebastian_ lost bottom, feared breaking against the rocky shore and
stood out for sea room. The _Consolacion_ stayed fast, and at dawn was
woe to see nothing at all of the three. In the howling tempest and the
quarter light we knew not if they were sunk or saved.

With the second evening the hurricane sank; at dawn the seas, though
running high, no longer pushed against us like white-maned horses of
Death. We waited till noon, then the sea being less mountainous, quitted
th