YBARRA ] LETTER OF DR. DIEGO ALVAREZ CHANCA 449 
Our people then became very much chagrined, and began to realize 
what the circumstances naturally suggested. 
“While all of us were in this depressed state of mind, the same 
canoe with several Indians on board which we had-seen that after- 
noon, came up to where we were anchored, and the Indians with 
a loud voice inquired for the admiral. They were conducted to 
the admiral’s vessel, and remained there on board for three hours 
talking with the admiral in the presence of us all. They said that 
some of the Christians left on the island had died of disease, others 
had been killed in quarrels amongst themselves, and that those who 
remained were all well. They also said that that province had been 
invaded by two kings named Caonabé and Mayreni, who burned 
all the houses, and that king Guacamari was at another place, some 
distance away, lying ill of a wound in his leg, which was the reason 
why he had not come himself in person. 
“ Next morning some of our men landed by order of the admiral, 
and went to the spot where the Christians had been housed. They 
found the building, which had been fortified to a certain degree by 
a palisade surrounding it, all burned up and levelled with the 
ground 
“They found also some rags and stuffs which the Indians had 
brought to set the fort and the houses in the environs on fire. They 
observed, too, that the few Indians seen going about in that neigh- 
borhood were shy, and dared not approach, but, on the contrary, 
when called, fled. 
* The little wooden fortress in which Columbus had left 38 men the year 
before was built with the remains of the caravel Santa Maria, the largest 
of the three small vessels that discovered the Western Hemisphere of our 
planet, which had been wrecked on the reefs of that harbor. That small 
band of fool-hardy Spanish people was left well provided with arms and 
ammunition, medical and surgical supplies; but they all perished for lack of 
discipline and disregard of the orders and admonitions of Columbus before 
he returned to Spain. 
Their commander was the hidalgo Diego de Arana Enriquez, who was a 
brother of Donna Beatriz, the second wife of Columbus (by whom he had his 
second son, Don Fernando, born at the city of Cordova on August 15, 1488), 
and he had as his lieutenants Pedro Gutierrez and Rodrigo de Escovedo. 
Among those 38 men killed by the Indians was one of the two physicians 
or fisicos (as they were then called) who had accompanied Columbus on 
his first voyage, and was left to care for the health of those boldly-venturous 
Spaniards. His‘'name was Maese Juan. The name of the other ship sur- 
geon, who returned with Columbus to Spain, was Maese Alonso. In my 
monograph on “The Medical History of Christopher Columbus, and the 
Part Taken by the Medical Profession in the Discovery of America,” I men- 
tion these two worthy members of the medical profession, who were the 
first physicians to tread American soil. 
