and nephew, sending them in irons to the admiral, and cut off
the ears of one of his subjects in the great place of his town, for the
following reason: This cacique had sent five Indians along with three
Christians who were travelling from St Thomas to Isabella to carry their
clothes over the river at the ford, and they being come to the middle of
the river returned to the town with the clothes, when the cacique, instead
of punishing the people for the robbery, took the clothes to himself and
refused to restore them. Another cacique who dwelt beyond the river,
relying on the service he had done the Christians, went along with the
prisoners to Isabella to intercede with the admiral for their pardon. The
admiral received him very courteously, but ordered that the prisoners
should be brought out into the market-place with their hands bound, and
sentenced them to die. On seeing this the friendly cacique petitioned for
their lives with many tears, promising that they should never be guilty of
any other offence; at length the admiral relented and discharged them all.
Soon afterwards a person came on horseback from St Thomas, and reported
that he had found five Christian prisoners in the town of the cacique who
had just been pardoned, who had been taken by his subjects while going
from Isabella; that by frightening the Indians with his horse he had
obtained the relief of the prisoners, above 400 of the Indians running
away from him alone, two of whom he wounded in the pursuit; and that when
he crossed the river the Indians turned back upon the Christians to retake
them, but by making as if he would go against them, they all ran away lest
the horse should fly over the river.

Before proceeding on his intended voyage for discovering the continent,
the admiral appointed a council to govern the island in his absence, of
which he appointed his brother Don James Columbus president: the others
were F. Boyl and Peter Fernandez Coronell regents, together with Alonzo
Sanchez de Caravajal, rector of Bracca, and Juan de Luxan of Madrid,
gentleman to their Catholic majesties. That there might be no want of
flour for supporting the people, he hastened the building of the mills,
notwithstanding the rain and floods which very much obstructed the work.
Owing to these rains, in the admirals opinion, the great fertility of the
island proceeded. So wonderful is this fertility that they eat the fruits
of the trees in the month of November, while at