Chap. III. " C H R I S T"0 P H E R C O L U M BUS. 
thofe near the Mines, above fifteen Years of Age, to pay 
a fmall Hawk’s Bill full of Gold quarterly ; and all other 
Perfons, a Quarter of an hundred Weight of Cotton 
.each ; and only King Manicatex to pay every Month 
'half a Gourd full of Gold, worth an hundred and fifty 
Pefos. A certain Coin made of Copper or Brafs with a 
certain Figure on it was ftruck, and changed upon 
every Payment of the Tribute, that every tributary Indian 
mi<^htwear it about his Neck, in order to fhew wno had 
paid. Upon this Occafion Guarinoex^ King of the great 
Royal Plain^ offered the Admiral to fow Corn through- 
out the Country from Ifabella to Santa Domingo^ which is 
from Sea to Sea fifty-five Leagues Diffance, v/hicli would 
furnifh all Caftile with Bread, provided he would not re- 
quire any Gold of him, becaufe his Subjedls did not 
know how to gather it. But the Admiral being a 
Stranger, alone, and envied by the Minifters of their Ca- 
tholic Majefties, and, like a difcreet Man, being fenfible 
that the Wealth he fent muff be his Support, he preffed 
for Gold, tho’ in other refpefts he was a good Chrifti- 
an, and feared God. And accordingly he moderated the 
I'ribute, being fenfible that it could not be paid ; for 
which fome had fled to the Mountains, and others wan- 
dered into remote Provinces. 
This Oppreflion, and the Indians feeing there was no 
likelihood of the Spaniards leaving the Country, becaufe 
there were no Ships in the Harbour, and they builtHoufes 
on the Land with Stone and Timber, made them me- 
lancholy ; and they aflced them. Whether they ever de- 
figned to return home ? And having found by Experi- 
eiTce, that the Spaniards^ compared with them, were very 
great Eaters, they thought they had come thither only to 
eat ; whereupon, obferving that many of them were fick, 
and that the Provifions brought them from Spain were 
fpent, many Towns confpired to contrive fome Method 
that they might all perifli, or, to avoid that, be obliged 
to depart the Ifland. 
9. In order to pufh this Defign with Effect, the In- 
dians thought befl; to forbear fowing, that there might be 
no Corn, and to retire themfelves to the Mountains, 
where they had many good Roots to eat, and might help 
out with hunting Utias, a fort of Rabbit, whereof there 
is a vaff Plenty. This Contrivance little availed them ; 
for though the Spaniards buffered much through Hun- 
ger, and inPurfuitof Indians^ they, however, went not 
away ; but many dying through downright Want obliged 
them to eat loathfome things, fo that all the Calamity 
fell upon the Indians themfelves •, for they ranging about 
the Mountains with their Wives and Children, enduring 
much Hunger, and having no opportunity to hunt, fifh, 
and get Provifions, the Hills and Rivers about which they 
flculked being full of Damps, a peftilential Diftemper 
reigned among them j fo that what through this, and the 
Wars, till the Year 1496, one Third of the Inhabitants 
perifhed. 
But let us now look over to Spain^ where Father Boyl 
and Don Pedro Margarite, as they agreed to go away 
together without Leave, fo they alfo combined in fpeak- 
ing ill of the Indies, and mifreprefenting the Enter- 
prize, becaufe they had not found Gold for them to 
plunder, in Chefts, or growing on the Trees. They alfo 
alledged that the Admiral did not behave well, not hav- 
ing been in the Ifland from his Return thither in the fe- 
Cond Voyage, till he came back from the Difeovery 
of the Ifland of Cuba, full four Months. And there 
being Letters alfo that gave an ill Charafter of the Ad- 
miral, by thofe who went on board the four Ships under 
the Command of Anthony de Porres (for there are always 
Malcontents) their Catholic Majeflies, at the time the 
Admiral took the Field againfl; the Indians in the Royal 
Plain, fent away John Aguado, a Native of Seville, 
Groom of the King’s Bed-Chamber, to obferve what 
was doing in the Ifland Hifpaniola,, taking with him four 
Ships laden with Neceffaries for the Relief of the People 
there. 
John Aguado carrifed with him Credentials, dated 
the 9th, 1495, and arrived at Ifabella about Olicber, at 
the time when the Admiral was carrying on the W'ar 
againft Caunabo\ Brother in the Province of Maguana. 
At Ifabella, by Words, and even by Actions, he pretend- 
VoL. IL Numb. 71. 
ed to have extraordinary Authority, interpofing in Mat- 
ters of Government, feizing fome Perfons, and reprov- 
ing the Admiral’s Miniffers, fliewing little Refpedl to 
Don Bartholomew Columbus, who had been left Govern- 
or there during his Brother’s Abfence. Nor v/as it long 
before John Aguado thought fit to go after the Admiral, 
and took Horfe and Foot along with him : And thofe 
who went with him by the way gave out, that another 
Admiral was come, who would put the former to death j 
and the Natives being difeontented on account of tlieWars 
and of the Tribute of Gold, they were much pleafed 
with this News ; and fome Caziques met privately in the 
Houfe of King Manicatex, v/hofe Dominions were near 
the River Taq^ui, where they agreed to give in their Com- 
plaints againft the Admiral, and to feek Redrefs from 
this new Minifter. 
The Admiral, being informed that John Aguado was 
looking for him, refolved to return to Ifabella, where in 
the Prefence of the People he read their Highneffes Let- 
ter, with Sound of Trumpet and great Solemnity : John 
Aguado could not forbear very foon difeovering his Indif- 
cretion, thrufling himfelf into many Affairs, without any 
Refped to the Admiral, and giving thereby an ill Ex- 
ample to others. Flis Conduct being pernicious to the 
Admiral, the bold Threats he made, and the People be- 
ing difeontented on account of the Troubles, and be- 
caufe they had nothing to eat but the Allowance given 
them out of the King’s Stores, which was a Porringer of 
Wheat, ground in a Hand-mill by fome, and by others 
eaten boiled, and a flice of nifty Bacon, or rotten Cheefe, 
with a few Beans, or Spanijh Peas, and no Wine, and the 
Admiral obliging them, as they were in the King’s Fay, 
'to Vork at the Fortifications, his own Houfe, and other 
Strudlures, they complained to John Aguado ; for as to 
thofe who were in health, by ranging about the Ifland 
they fared better •, and he thought thefe Complaints fuffi- 
cient to lay before their Majefties. 
At this time the four Ships that had carried ovtvjohn 
Aguado perifhed in the Harbour, in thofe Tempefts which 
the Indians call Hurricanes, and there was nothing left 
to carry him back but the Admiral’s two Caravels, who 
obferving his Prefumption, and being informed that 
others had mifreprefented him at Court, v/here he had 
nothing to fupport him but his own Merit, he refolved 
to appear before their Majefties, to clear himfelf of all 
thofe Slanders, and at the fame time acquaint them with 
what he had found, in his fecond Difeovery, upon the 
Ifland of Cuba, and his Opinion as to the Partition that 
was to be made of the Ocean between the tv/o Crowns of 
Cajlile 2LndPortugal : And to the end that all things might 
be thoroughly fettled, he would firft leave other Forts 
in a good Pofture, v/hich he had begun, befides that of 
St. Ihomas, for the Security of the Country, being the 
Magdalen, called the Lower Maccrix, in the Royal Plain 
belonging to the Cazique Guanaconel, three or four 
Leagues from the Place where the Town of St.fjago now 
ftands; another called St. Catherine ; another on the Bank 
of the River Taqui on the Side of Cibao, called Efperan- 
za another in the Kingdom of Guarinoex, in the Roy at 
Plain, called the Conception. The Caziques, being much 
oppreffed by the Burthen of the Tribute, difeovered to 
the Admiral that there were good Gold Mines on the 
South Side, and that he might fend his Spaniards for it. 
Now as it concerned the Admiral to difeover much of 
that Sort, to fupport his own Credit ; and this coming at 
the time when he was refolved to return to Spain,, he fent 
Francis de Garay and Michael Diaz, with fome Men and 
the Indian Guides : I'hey went from Ifabella to the Fort 
Magdalen, and thence to the Conception, all the way over 
the Royal Plain : They next ventured through a Pafs two 
Leagues in Length, which led them into another Plain, 
called Bonao : they advanced fome Leagues farther along 
the Ridges of Bonao, and came to a great River called 
Hayna, very fruitful, and where they v/ere told there was 
much Gold, as there was in all the Brooks, which they 
found true ; for, digging in feveral Places, they met with 
fuch Penty, that one Labourer, in a Day, could get 
above three Pefos : Thefe they called the Mines of St. 
Chriftopher, from a Fort the* Admiral ordered to be there 
built, and afterwards they were called the Old Mines, 
H When 
