RICA, FROM THE PORT
OF PALOS, SPAIN, ON AUGUST 3, 1492.

From the celebrated painting by Senor A. Gisbert.

(See page 19.)]

His hour of rest, however, was not yet come. Ever anxious to serve their
Catholic Highnesses, "and particularly the Queen," he had determined to
find a strait through which he might penetrate westward into Portuguese
Asia. After the usual inevitable delays his prayers were granted, and on
May 9, 1502, with four caravels and 150 men, he weighed anchor from
Cadiz and sailed on his fourth and last great voyage. He first betook
himself to the relief of the Portuguese fort of Arzilla, which had been
besieged by the Moors, but the siege had been raised voluntarily before
he arrived. He put to sea westward once more, and on June 13th
discovered the Island of Martinique. He had received positive
instructions from his sovereigns on no account to touch at Espanola, but
his largest caravel was greatly in need of repairs, and he had no
choice but to abandon her or disobey orders. He preferred the latter
alternative, and sent a boat ashore to Ovando, asking for a new ship and
for permission to enter the harbor to weather a hurricane which he saw
was coming on. But his requests were refused, and he coasted the island,
casting anchor under lee of the land. Here he weathered the storm, which
drove the other caravels out to sea and annihilated the homeward-bound
fleet, the richest till then that had been sent from Espanola. Roldan
and Bobadilla perished with others of the Admiral's enemies; and
Hernando Colon, who accompanied his father on this voyage, wrote, long
years afterward, "I am satisfied it was the hand of God, for had they
arrived in Spain they had never been punished as their crimes deserved,
but rather been favored and preferred."

After recruiting his flotilla at Azua, Columbus put in at Jaquimo and
refitted his four vessels, and on July 14, 1502, he steered for Jamaica.
For nine weeks the ships wandered painfully among the keys and shoals he
had named the Garden of the Queen, and only an opportune easterly wind
prevented the crews from open mutiny. The first land sighted was the
Islet of Guanaja, about forty miles to the east of the coast of
Honduras. Here he got news from an old Indian of a rich and vast country
lying to the eastward, which he at once concluded must be the
long-sought-for empire of the Grand Khan. Steering along the coast of
Honduras great hardships were endured, but nothing app