earth produced or what it pleased the natives to give them. The
mortal enmities existing amongst the savage caciques were of some
service to the Spaniards; for to secure their alliance the caciques
distributed bread to the starving whenever they were about to
undertake a campaign. O how sad and wretched it is, Most Holy Father,
to eat the bread of charity! Your Holiness may well understand,
especially when man is deprived of wine, meat, different kinds of
cheeses, and of everything to which from their infancy the stomachs of
Europeans are accustomed.

Under the stress of necessity the Admiral resolved to tempt fortune.
Desiring to know what destiny God reserved for him, he took counsel
with his intendant, Diego Mendez,[11] and two islanders of Jamaica who
were familiar with those waters. Mendez started in a canoe, although
the sea was already ruffled. From reef to reef and from rock to rock,
his narrow skiff tossed by the waves, Diego nevertheless succeeded in
reaching the extreme point of Hispaniola which is some forty leagues
distant from Jamaica. The two natives returned joyously, anticipating
the reward promised them by Columbus. Mendez made his way on foot to
Santo Domingo, the capital of the island, where he rented two boats
and set out to rejoin his commander. All the Spaniards returned
together to Hispaniola, but in a state of extreme weakness and
exhaustion from their privations. I do not know what has since
happened to them.[12] Let us now resume our narrative.

[Note 11: The events of this fourth voyage are related in
the interesting _Relacion hecha par Diego Mendez de algunos
aconticimientos del ultimo viaje del Almirante Don Christobal Colon_.
King Ferdinand afterwards granted Mendez a canoe in his armorial
bearings, in memory of the services he had rendered.]

[Note 12: Columbus reached Santo Domingo on August 18th, and there
rested until September 12th, when he embarked for Spain landing at San
Lucar on November 7.]

According to his letters and the reports of his companions, all the
regions explored by Columbus are well wooded at all seasons of the
year, shaded by leafy green trees. Moreover, what is more important,
they are healthy. Not a man of his crew was ever ill or exposed to the
rigours of cold nor the heats of summer throughout the whole extent of
fifty leagues between the great harbour of Cerabaro and the Hiebra and
Veragua rivers.

All the inhabitants of Cerabaro and the neighbourhood of