he persisted, and he says he "undertook a new voyage to the new
heaven and the new earth which before had been hidden, and if it is not
appreciated in Spain as much as the other countries of India it is not
surprising, because it is all owing to my industry." He "had believed
that the voyage to Paria would reconcile all because of the pearls and
gold in the islands of Espanola." He says, "I caused those of our people
whom I had left there to come together and fish for pearls, and arranged
that I should return and take from them what had been collected, as I
understood, in measure a fanega (about a bushel). If I have not written
this to their Highnesses it is because I wished also to have as much
of gold. But that fled before me, as all other things; I would not have
lost them and with them my honor, if I could have busied myself with my
own affairs.

"When I went to San Domingo I found almost half of the colony uprising,
and they made war upon me as a Moor, and the Indians on the other side
were no less cruel.

"Hojida came and he tried to make order, and he said that their
Highnesses had sent him with promises of gifts and grants and money. He
made up a large company, for in all Espanola there were few men who were
not vagabonds, and no one lived there who had wife or children." Hojida
retired with threats.

"Then Vincente Ganez came with four ships. There were outbreaks and
suspicions but no damage." He reported that six other ships under a
brother of the Alcalde would arrive, and also the death of the queen,
but these were rumors without foundation.

"Adrian (Mogica) attempted to go away as before, but our Lord did not
permit him to carry out his bad plan." Here Columbus regrets that he was
obliged to use force or ill-treat Adrian, but says he would have done
the same had his brother wished to kill him or wrest from him the
government which the king and queen had given him to guard.

"For six months I was ready to leave to take to their Highnesses the
good news of the gold and to stop governing a dissolute people who
feared neither king nor queen, full of meanness and malice. I would have
been able to pay all the people with six hundred thousand maravedis and
for that there were more than four millions of tithes without counting
the third part of the gold."

Columbus says that he begged before his departure that they would send
some one at his expense to take command, and yet again a subject with
letters, for