ted, some rich gold mines were discovered on the
south side of the island, in the neighbourhood of the Hayna and Ozema
rivers. Moreover there were sundry pits in these mines, which looked
like excavations and seemed to indicate that in former times there had
been digging done.[581] This discovery confirmed the Admiral in a new
theory, which he was beginning to form. If it should turn out that
Hispaniola was not Cipango, as the last voyage seemed to suggest,
perhaps it might prove to be Ophir![582] Probably these ancient
excavations were made by King Solomon's men when they came here to get
gold for the temple at Jerusalem! If so, one might expect to find
silver, ivory, red sandal-wood, apes, and peacocks at no great distance.
Just where Ophir was situated no one could exactly tell,[583] but the
things that were carried thence to Jerusalem certainly came from "the
Indies." Columbus conceived it as probably lying northeastward of the
Golden Chersonese (Malacca) and as identical with the island of
Hispaniola.

[Footnote 581: The Indians then living upon the island did not
dig, but scraped up the small pieces of gold that were more or
less abundant in the beds of shallow streams.]

[Footnote 582: Peter Martyr, _De Rebus Oceanicis_, dec. i. lib.
iv.]

[Footnote 583: The original Ophir may be inferred, from
_Genesis_ x. 29, to have been situated where, as Milton says,

"northeast winds blow
Sabaean odours from the spicy shore
Of Araby the Blest,"

but the name seems to have become applied indiscriminately to
the remote countries reached by ships that sailed past that
coast; chiefly no doubt, to Hindustan. See Lassen, _Indische
Alterthumskunde_, bd. i. p. 538.]

[Sidenote: Founding of San Domingo, 1496.]

[Sidenote: The return voyage.]

The discovery of these mines led to the transfer of the headquarters of
the colony to the mouth of the Ozema river, where, in the summer of
1496, Bartholomew Columbus made a settlement which became the city of
San Domingo.[584] Meanwhile Aguado and the Admiral sailed for Spain
early in March, in two caravels overloaded with more than two hundred
homesick passengers. In choosing his course Columbus did not show so
much sagacity as on his first return voyage. Instead of working
northward till clear of the belt of trade-winds, he kept straight to