LIFE OF COLUMBUS. 



a spacious harbor, gave promise of a more fortunate desti- 

 ny. Here, too, the soil was fertile, the climate genial ; the 

 trees were in leaf, the shrubs flowered, and the birds sing- 

 ing, though it was the middle of December. The settle- 

 ment was immediately undertaken. An encampment was 

 formed upon the plain ; the cattle, horses, stores, guns 

 and everything on board the vessels was conveyed ashore ; 

 streets and squares, gardens and orchards projected ; and 

 the greatest diligence used in erecting a church, a store- 

 house, and residence for the admiral, of stone, beside a 

 number of wooden and reed houses for the multitude at 

 large. The greater part of the fleet, meanwhile, sailed 

 for Spain on the 2d of February, 1494. 



From this time commenced the troubles of Columbus. 

 Many of his ardent followers were already disappointed in 

 their extravagant expectations of wealth and glory ; and 

 the same heat and moisture which fertilized the soil they 

 had settled on, soon proved fatal to themselves. Pro- 

 visions grew scarce, and labor became necessary ; but 

 the cavaliers were both indolent and ill-humored, and 

 thus controversy and jealousies arose between them and 

 Columbus, which lasted during their and his whole life. 

 To quiet them for a time, however, he undertook various 

 exploring expeditions into the interior, and also voyages 

 upon the neighboring seas. Jamaica was discovered, and 

 that island and others already known were more tho- 

 roughly explored the admiral himself sharing with his 

 humblest companions, during all this time, the utmost of 

 their privations and labors, in addition to his own pecu- 

 liar and poignant anxieties, of which they could not even 

 form a conception. Indeed so completely was he worn 

 out, on his return in September to his new settlement, 

 (named Isabella in honor of the Queen) as to be car- 

 ried on shore at that place in a stale of lethargy resem- 

 bling death itself, deprived of sight, of memory and of all 

 his faculties. 



His history between this period and the ensuing spring 

 may be passed over with the remark, that his brother 

 Bartholomew arrived from Europe, meanwhile, to comfort 

 and assist him in the difficulties which still beset him up- 

 on all sides. Not the least of these was a war with the 



