But The Admiral Was Of A Different
Opinion, Conceiving It Very Improper To Use Severity, Or To Go Rashly To
War, at his first settling in the country; meaning first to fortify
himself and establish the colony on a permanent
Footing, examining more
accurately into the matter gradually, and if the cacique were ultimately
found guilty, he could be punished at any time.
The admiral was full of perplexity how best to give a good beginning to
the great object he had undertaken; and though the province of Marien,
in which he had formerly built the Nativity, had good harbours and
excellent water, it was a very low country, in which stone and other
materials for building were scarce. He resolved, therefore, to return
along the coast to the eastwards, to look out for a more convenient
situation in which to build a town. With this design, he sailed with all
the fleet on Saturday the 7th December, and anchored that evening near
some small islands not far from Monte Christo, and came next day to
anchor close to that mountain. Imagining that Monte de Plata was nearer
to the province of Cibao, in which he had been told the rich gold mines
were situated, which he fancied to be Cipango, he was desirous to draw
near that part of the island. But the wind proved so adverse after leaving
Monte Christo, that the men and horses became much fatigued, and he was
unable to reach the port of Garcia, where Martin Alonso Pinzon had been,
and which is now called the river of Martin Alonso, being five or six
leagues from Puerta de Plata.
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