130 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK 11. 



v 



his ships, to bear away in the utmost distress for this 

 island. With great difficulty, he reached a little har- 

 bour on the north side, J where he was forced to run 

 aground the two vessels that were left him, to pre- 

 vent their foundering. By this disaster, his ships 

 were damaged beyond the possibility of repair, and 

 he had now the melancholy reflection, that his miseries 

 and his life would probably terminate together. Du- 

 ring the space of twelve months and four days, that 

 he remained in this wretched situation, he had new 

 dangers to surmount, and unaccustomed trials for the 

 exercise of his fortitude. His people revolted, the 

 Indians deserted him, and the governor of Hispa- 

 niola not only refused to relieve, but, with monstrous 

 and unexampled barbarity, aggravated his misfortunes 

 by outrage and mockery. All these occurrences how- 

 ever, the dexterity with which he availed himself of 

 the superstition of the Indians by the circumstance of 

 an eclipse, and the means whereby his deliverance 

 was at length effected, having been recounted by a 

 thousand different historians, need not be repeated by 

 me. The hardships he suffered on this occasion, 

 and his sovereign's ingratitude together, proved too 

 mighty for his generous spirit: he sunk under them, 

 soon after his return to Spain; leaving a name which 

 will not be extinguished, but with that world whose 

 boundaries he had extended. 



J Called to this day, Don Christopher"* Cove. 



There is preserved among the Journals of the Hon. Council In Ja- 

 maica, a very old volume in MS. consisting of diaries and reports of go- 

 vernors, which relate chiefly to the proceedings of the army and other 



