assed to Dominica, and thence crossed to San Domingo,
to make repairs, as he said. For, as has been said, he had been
especially ordered not to interfere in the affairs of the settlement.

He did not disobey his orders. He says distinctly that he intended
to pass along the southern shore of San Domingo, and thence take a
departure for the continent. But he says, that his principal vessel
sailed very ill--could not carry much canvas, and delayed the rest of
the squadron. This weakness must have increased after the voyage across
the ocean. For this reason he hoped to exchange it for another ship at
San Domingo.

But he did not enter the harbor. He sent a letter to Ovando, now the
governor, and asked his permission. He added, to the request he made,
a statement that a tempest was at hand which he did not like to meet in
the offing. Ovando, however, refused any permission to enter. He was, in
fact, just dispatching a fleet to Spain, with Bobadilla, Columbus's old
enemy, whom Ovando had replaced in his turn.

Columbus, in an eager wish to be of use, by a returning messenger begged
Ovando to delay this fleet till the gale had passed. But the seamen
ridiculed him and his gale, and begged Ovando to send the fleet home.

He did so. Bobadilla and his fleet put to sea. In ten days a West India
hurricane struck them. The ship on which Columbus's enemies, Bobadilla
and Roldan, sailed, was sunk with them and the gold accumulated for
years. Of the whole fleet, only one vessel, called the weakest of all,
reached Spain. This ship carried four thousand pieces of gold, which
were the property of the Admiral. Columbus's own little squadron,
meanwhile--thanks probably to the seamanship of himself and his
brother--weathered the storm, and he found refuge in the harbor which
he had himself named "the beautiful," El Hermoso, in the western part of
San Domingo.

Another storm delayed him at a port which he called Port Brasil. The
word Brasil was the name which the Spaniards gave to the red log-wood,
so valuable in dyeing, and various places received that name, where this
wood was found. The name is derived from "Brasas,"--coals,--in allusion,
probably, to the bright red color of the dye.

Sailing from this place, on Saturday, the sixteenth of June, they made
sight of the island of Jamaica, but he pressed on without making any
examination of the country, for four days sailing west and south-west.
He then changed his course, and sailed for