s
shaped his course for Jamaica, and there, in the harbour which he had
named Santa Gloria on his former visit, his voyage was perforce brought to
a conclusion. As his ships could not float any longer, he ran them on
shore, side by side, and built huts upon the decks for housing the crews.
Such a habitation, like the Swiss lake dwellings, afforded remarkable
advantages of position in case of attack by a hostile tribe.

SUPPLY OF PROVISIONS.

The admiral's first care was to prevent any offence being given to the
aborigines which might give cause for such an attack. Knowing, by sad
experience, the results of permitting free intercourse between the
Spaniards and the natives, he enforced strictly a rule forbidding any
Spaniard to go ashore without leave; and took measures for regulating the
traffic for food so as to prevent the occurrence of any quarrel. Diego
Mendez, who had been his lieutenant, and had shown himself the boldest of
his officers throughout this voyage, volunteered to proceed into the
interior of the island to make arrangements for the periodical supply of
provisions from some of the more remote tribes, as it was certain that the
sudden addition to the population would soon exhaust the resources of the
immediate neighbourhood. This service Mendez performed with great
adroitness, and a regular market was established to which the natives
brought fish, game and cassava bread, in exchange for Spanish toys and
ornaments.

A MESSENGER SENT TO OVANDO; REMARKABLE DESPATCH TO THE SOVEREIGNS.

Although the Spaniards were thus secure from starvation for the present,
their position was most critical. The journey to the easternmost extremity
of Jamaica would probably not be unattended with difficulty and danger,
for it must be effected through the midst of Indian tribes, hostile to
each other, and therefore probably not unanimous in being friendly towards
strangers. But the most formidable obstacle to communication with the
government of Hispaniola was the strait of forty leagues' breadth, full of
tumbling breakers and rushing currents, which separated the two islands.
However, it was necessary that the attempt should be made; and Diego
Mendez, though he considered it to be "not merely difficult, but
impossible, to cross in so small a vessel as a canoe," volunteered for the
service, after all the other Spaniards had declined to undertake it. He
was to be the bearer of a letter from the admiral to Ovando, askin