ame to the ship six Indians, and one of
them carried a crossbow with its cord, and nut and rack,[366-1] which
caused him no small surprise, and he said, "May it please God that no one
is dead." And because from Sancto Domingo the three ships must have been
seen to pass downward, and concluding that it certainly was the Admiral
as he was expecting him each day, the Adelantado started then in a
caravel and overtook the Admiral here. They both were very much pleased
to see each other. The Admiral having asked him about the condition of
the country, the Adelantado recounted to him how Francisco Roldan had
arisen with 80 men, with all the rest of the occurrences which had passed
in this island, since he left it. What he felt on hearing such news,
there is small need to recite.

He left there, Wednesday, August 22, and finally with some difficulty
because of the many currents and the north-east breezes which are
continuous and contrary there he arrived at this port of Sancto Domingo,
Friday, the last day of August of the said year 1498, having set out from
Isabela for Castile, Thursday the tenth day of March, 1496, so that he
delayed in returning to this island two years and a half less nine days.

FOOTNOTES:

[319-1] _I.e._, the first Admiral of the Ocean and the Indies where Las
Casas was when he was writing.

[319-2] This clause is probably an explanatory remark by Las Casas. It is
misleading. The war in Naples growing out of the invasion of Italy by
Charles VIII. of France, in which Ferdinand had taken an active part
against the French, had been brought to a close so far as concerned
France and Spain by a truce in March, 1497. The treaty of peace was
signed August 5, 1498.

[320-1] Funchal.

[320-2] This positive assertion that Columbus had lived in Funchal,
Madeira, has been overlooked by Vignaud and Harrisse. Vignaud, _Etudes
Critiques sur la Vie de Colomb avant ses Decouvertes_ (Paris, 1905), p.
443, note 9, rejects as unauthenticated the tradition that Columbus lived
in Madeira, without adequate grounds it seems to me. Diego Columbus told
Las Casas in 1519 that he was born in the neighboring island of Puerto
Santo and that his father had lived there. Las Casas, _Historia de las
Indias_, I. 54. This passage is not noted by Vignaud.

[320-3] One of the Canary Islands.

[321-1] The Adelantado was Bartholomew Columbus. The title Adelantado was
given in Spain to the military and political governors of border
prov