e hand-mills had been erected for the making of flour, and as food
was the first necessity Columbus immediately put all the able-bodied men
in the colony, whatever their rank, to the elementary manual work of
grinding. Friar Buil and the twelve Benedictine brothers who were with
him thought this a wise order, assuming of course that as clerics they
would not be asked to work. But great was their astonishment, and loud
and angry their criticism of the Admiral, when they found that they also
were obliged to labour with their hands. But Columbus was firm; there
were absolutely no exceptions made; hidalgo and priest had to work
alongside of sailor and labourer; and the curses of the living mingled
with those of the dying on the man whose boastful words had brought them
to such a place and such a condition.

It was only in the nature of things that news should now arrive of
trouble at Saint Thomas. Gold and women again; instead of bartering or
digging, the Spaniards had been stealing; and discipline had been
relaxed, with the usual disastrous results with regard to the women of
the adjacent native tribes. Pedro Margarite sent a nervous message to
Columbus expressing his fear that Caonabo, the native king, should be
exasperated to the point of attacking them again. Columbus therefore
despatched Ojeda in command of a force of 350 armed men to Saint Thomas
with instructions that he was to take over the command of that post,
while Margarite was to take out an expedition in search of Caonabo whom,
with his brothers, Margarite was instructed to capture at all costs.

Having thus set things going in the interior, and once more restored
Isabella to something like order, he decided to take three ships and
attempt to discover the coast of Cathay. The old Nina, the San Juan, and
the Cordera, three small caravels, were provisioned for six months and
manned by a company of fifty-two men. Francisco Nino went once more with
the Admiral as pilot, and the faithful Juan de la Cosa was taken to draw
charts; one of the monks also, to act as chaplain. The Admiral had a
steward, a secretary, ten seamen and six boys to complete the company on
the Nina. The San Juan was commanded by Alonso Perez Roldan and the
Cordera by Christoval Nino. Diego was again left in command of the
colony, with four counsellors, Friar Buil, Fernandez Coronel, Alonso
Sanchez Carvajal, and Juan de Luxan, to assist his authority.

The Admiral sailed on April 24t