at a commissioner, Juan Aguado, armed with
supreme authority, was sent out to investigate the behaviour of
Columbus, and to administer the government.

The Admiral received him with calmness and courtesy, and gave him no
opportunity of creating a quarrel. All the rebels and dissatisfied
spirits, however, thronged round Aguado and brought their accusations
against Columbus, who, finding that Aguado was about to return to Spain,
resolved likewise to go there, in order to defend himself.

As Aguado was about to sail, a fearful hurricane burst over the island
and destroyed his four ships. Columbus on this ordered that the _Nina_,
which was in a shattered and leaky condition, should be prepared, and
another vessel constructed out of the wrecks.

At this juncture a young Spaniard, who, in consequence of wounding a
man, had fled from the settlement and concealed himself among the
natives near the mountains, where he married, had, by the aid of his
wife, discovered a rich gold region.

Knowing that he should be pardoned, he returned and reported the
discovery to Columbus, who, highly elated, fully believed that the mines
were those of the ancient Ophir.

The _Santa Cruz_, the new caravel, being finished and the _Nina_
repaired, Columbus appointed his brother, Don Bartholomew, as
Adelantado, to govern the island, and going on board, set sail on the
12th of March, 1496. Aguado went on board the other vessel, and between
the two were two hundred and twenty-five passengers, all those who
wished to return to the old country, as well as thirty Indians, with the
cacique Caonabo, one of his brothers, and a nephew. Even captivity
could not crush the spirit of the haughty chief till he fell ill, and
died before the termination of the voyage.

After meeting with baffling winds for a long time, on the 6th of April
Columbus found himself still in the neighbourhood of the Carib Islands,
his crew sickly and his provisions diminishing. He bore away,
therefore, in search of supplies, and after touching at Maregalante,
made sail for Guadaloupe. Here a boat going ashore to obtain wood and
water, a large number of females, decorated with tufts of feathers and
armed with bows and arrows, as if to defend their shores, were seen
issuing from the forest. The natives on board having explained to these
Amazonian dames that the object of the Spaniards was barter, they
referred them to their husbands, who, they said, were in a different
part