t anchored in a bay on the western coast, where
Columbus landed and took possession in the name of his royal patrons
with the same formalities as observed in Marie-Galante, and named the
island San Juan Bautista. Near the landing-place was found a deserted
village consisting of a dozen huts of the usual size surrounding a
larger one of superior construction; from the village a road or walk,
hedged in by trees and plants, led to the sea, "which," says
Munoz,[7] "gave it the aspect of some cacique's place of seaside
recreation."

After remaining two days in port (November 20th and 21st), and without
a single native having shown himself, the fleet lifted anchor on the
morning of the 22d, and proceeding on its northwesterly course,
reached the bay of Samana, in Espanola, before night, whence, sailing
along the coast, the Admiral reached the longed-for port of Navidad on
the 25th, only to find that the first act of the bloody drama that was
to be enacted in this bright new world had already been performed.

Here we leave Columbus and his companions to play the important roles
in the conquest of America assigned to each of them. The fortunes of
the yeoman of humble birth, the former lance-bearer or stirrup-page of
the knight commander of Calatrava, already referred to, were destined
to become intimately connected with those of the island whose history
we will now trace.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 5: The "Caryophyllus pimienta," Coll y Toste.]

[Footnote 6: Navarrete supposes this to have been the fruit of the
Manzanilla "hippomane Mancinella," which produces identical effects.]

[Footnote 7: Historia del Nuevo Mundo.]

CHAPTER III

PONCE AND CERON

1500-1511

Friar Inigo Abbad, in his History of the Island San Juan Bautista de
Puerto Rico, gives the story of the discovery in a very short chapter,
and terminates it with the words: "Columbus sailed for Santo Domingo
November 22, 1493, and thought no more of the island, which remained
forgotten till Juan Ponce returned to explore it in 1508."

This is not correct. The island was not forgotten, for Don Jose Julian
de Acosta, in his annotations to the Benedictine monk's history (pp.
21 and 23), quotes a royal decree of March 24, 1505, appointing
Vicente Yanez Pinzon Captain and "corregidor" of the island San Juan
Bautista and governor of the fort that he was to construct therein.
Pinzon transferred his rights and titles in the appointment to Martin
Garcia de Sal