emain for several days among the
towns of the Indians, subsisting his whole party on the Indian bread and
garlick, which the natives parted with for a small price. On Sunday the
29th of March he returned to Isabella, where melons were already grown and
fit for eating, although the seed had only been put into the ground two
months before. Cucumbers came up in twenty days. A wild vine of the
country having been pruned, had produced large and excellent grapes. On
the 30th of March a peasant gathered some ears of wheat which had only
been sown in the latter end of January. There were vetches likewise, but
much larger than the seed they had brought from Spain; these had sprung up
in three days after they were sown, and the produce was fit to eat after
twenty-five days. The stones of fruit set in the ground sprouted in seven
days. Vine branches shot out in the same time, and in twenty-five days
they gathered green grapes.

Sugar canes budded in seven days. All this wonderful rapidity of
vegetation proceeded from the temperature of the climate, which was not
unlike that of the south of Spain, being rather cool than hot at the
present season of the year. The waters likewise were cold, pure, and
wholesome; so that upon the whole the admiral was well satisfied with the
soil and air, and with the people of the country.

On Tuesday the 1st of April, intelligence was brought by a messenger from
fort St Thomas, that all the Indians of that country had withdrawn from
the neighbourhood, and that a cacique named Caunabo was making
preparations to attack the fort. Knowing how inconsiderable the people of
that country were, the admiral was very little alarmed by this news, and
was especially confident in the horses which were in that garrison, as he
knew the Indians were particularly afraid of them, and would not enter a
house where a horse stood lest they should be devoured. But, as he
designed to go out from Isabella with the three caravels he had detained
there on purpose to discover the continent, he thought fit to send more
men and provisions to the fort, that every thing might remain quiet and
safe during his absence. Wherefore, on Wednesday the 2d of April he sent
70 men with a supply of provisions and ammunition to fort St Thomas. Of
these, 25 were appointed to strengthen the immediate garrison, and the
others were directed to assist in making a new road between the _puerto_
and the fort, the present one being very troublesome and