He Carried Materials Likewise Along With Him For The Construction Of
A Blockhouse, Or Fortalice, In Case He Found That Precaution Requisite.
He
accordingly set out on this expedition with colours flying, drums beating,
trumpets sounding, and his troops in martial
Array, in which manner he
marched through all the towns on his way, to impress the Indians with awe
of his power, who were particularly astonished at the horses in his train.
He left the new town of Isabella on the 12th of March 1494, leaving his
brother Don James Columbus to command in his absence; a gentleman of a
peaceable disposition, and most orderly behaviour. After marching three
leagues the first day, Columbus halted at the foot of a craggy pass in the
mountains; and, as the Indian paths were exceedingly narrow, he sent on
some pioneers under the direction of several gentlemen to level the road;
from which circumstance this place acquired the name of El puerto de los
Hidalgos, the port or pass of the gentlemen. Having reached the top of
the mountain on Thursday, they beheld a great plain beyond of wonderful
beauty, being eighty leagues long, and between twenty and thirty leagues
wide. This appeared one of the finest plains in the world, so green and
delightful that the Spaniards thought it a terrestrial paradise, on which
account the admiral named it Vega Real, or the Royal Plain. Coming down
from the mountain, they marched five leagues across this noble plain,
passing through several towns, where they were kindly received.
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