To husband the remaining provisions, Hojeda was sent from Isabella on Wednesday the 29th of April with 400 men, leaving none in the town who were in health except handicrafts and artificers. These were ordered to march about the country in various directions to strike terror into the Indians, to accustom them to subjection, and to enure the Spaniards to the food of country. Hojeda was ordered to march in the first place to fort St Thomas, of which he was to take the command as the first discoverer of the province of Cibao, which in the Indian language means the stony country. Don Pedro Marguerite was then to take charge of marching with this little army about the country. While on his outward march, Hojeda apprehended a cacique who resided on the other side of the Rio del Oro, together with his brother and nephew, sending them in irons to the admiral, and cut off the ears of one of his subjects in the great place of his town, for the following reason: This cacique had sent five Indians along with three Christians who were travelling from St Thomas to Isabella to carry their clothes over the river at the ford, and they being come to the middle of the river returned to the town with the clothes, when the cacique, instead of punishing the people for the robbery, took the clothes to himself and refused to restore them. Another cacique who dwelt beyond the river, relying on the service he had done the Christians, went along with the prisoners to Isabella to intercede with the admiral for their pardon. The admiral received him very courteously, but ordered that the prisoners should be brought out into the market-place with their hands bound, and sentenced them to die. On seeing this the friendly cacique petitioned for their lives with many tears, promising that they should never be guilty of any other offence; at length the admiral relented and discharged them all. Soon afterwards a person came on horseback from St Thomas, and reported that he had found five Christian prisoners in the town of the cacique who had just been pardoned, who had been taken by his subjects while going from Isabella; that by frightening the Indians with his horse he had obtained the relief of the prisoners, above 400 of the Indians running away from him alone, two of whom he wounded in the pursuit; and that when he crossed the river the Indians turned back upon the Christians to retake them, but by making as if he would go against them, they all ran away lest the horse should fly over the river.

Before proceeding on his intended voyage for discovering the continent, the admiral appointed a council to govern the island in his absence, of which he appointed his brother Don James Columbus president: the others were F. Boyl and Peter Fernandez Coronell regents, together with Alonzo Sanchez de Caravajal, rector of Bracca, and Juan de Luxan of Madrid, gentleman to their Catholic majesties. That there might be no want of flour for supporting the people, he hastened the building of the mills, notwithstanding the rain and floods which very much obstructed the work. Owing to these rains, in the admirals opinion, the great fertility of the island proceeded. So wonderful is this fertility that they eat the fruits of the trees in the month of November, while at the same time they are blossoming afresh, by which it is evident that they bear fruit twice every year. But herbs and seeds grow at all times indiscriminately, and nests with eggs and young birds are found on the trees throughout the whole year. As the fruitfulness of the island appeared so extraordinary, so daily accounts arrived of its abundant wealth, and of the discovery of new mines, which coincided with the reports of the Indians concerning the great quantity of gold to be met with in several parts of the island41. But the admiral could not rest satisfied with these things, and resolved to prosecute his discoveries by sea, beginning with the coast of Cuba, not yet knowing whether it was an island or a continent.

In the afternoon of Thursday the 24th of April 1494 the admiral sailed with three caravels from Isabella, and came to anchor that evening at Monte Christo, having shaped his course to the west. On Friday he went to Guacanagaris port, or the Nativity, thinking to find him there; but he fled, though his subjects falsely affirmed that he would soon return. Not caring to stay without sufficient cause, he departed on Saturday the 26th of April, and went to the island of Tortuga 6 leagues to the westwards. He lay here all that night in a calm with all his sails loose, the tide running back against the current. Next day the N.W. wind and a strong current setting to the west obliged him to go back to anchor in the river Guadalquiver in the same island, to wait for a wind sufficient to stem the current, which both then and the year before he found to run strong from the east. On Tuesday the 29th of April, the wind became fair and he was able to reach Cape St Nicholas, whence he crossed over to Cuba and run along its southern coast a league beyond Cape Fuerte, where he put into a large bay which he named Puerto Grande or the Great Harbour. The mouth of this port was 150 paces across, and had abundant depth of water. He cast anchor in this bay, where he procured refreshment of fish and oysters, which the Indians had in great abundance. On the first of May he continued his voyage along the coast, where he everywhere found commodious harbours, fine rivers, and lofty mountains. After leaving Tortuga the sea everywhere abounded with the same kind of weeds which he saw on the ocean in his voyages to and from Spain. While sailing along the coast many of the natives came off in their canoes, and thinking our people came down from heaven, freely bestowed their country bread and fish without asking any thing in return; but the admiral ordered them to be paid with beads, bells, and such like baubles, and sent them away well pleased.

On Saturday the third of May, having heard that there was much gold in Jamaica, he stood over for that island, which he discovered on Sunday the fourth of May. Upon Monday he came to an anchor there, and thought it the most beautiful of any island he had yet seen in the West Indies, and was astonished at the multitudes of people who came off to the ships in large and small canoes. Next day he ran along the coast in search of harbours. The boats being sent in to examine a harbour which the admiral named Puerto Bueno or the Good Port, so many canoes came out filled with armed natives to defend their country, that our people thought proper to return towards the ships, to avoid any quarrel with these people; but considering that to shew any signs of fear would make the Indians proud, they returned again towards the port; and as the Indians came to drive them off they gave them a flight of arrows from their cross-bows, by which six or seven of them were wounded, and they all retired. The fight ended upon this, and afterwards many natives came off to the ships in a peaceable manner to see our people and to barter provisions and other articles for such trifles as our people offered. In this bay, which is in the form of a horse shoe, the admiral repaired his ship which was leaky; and then sailed on the ninth of May, keeping along shore to the westwards, the Indians following continually in their canoes to trade or barter with our people. The wind proving rather contrary, and not being able to make so much way as he wished, the admiral left the coast of Jamaica and stood over for Cuba, designing to keep along its coast for five or six hundred leagues, that he might be satisfied whether it were an island or the continent. That day while leaving Jamaica, a young Indian came on board desiring to be carried into Spain, and when several of his kindred and others entreated him to return he refused to change his resolution, and to avoid the importunities of his friends, and not to see his sisters cry and sob, he went where they could not come to him. The admiral admired his resolution, and gave orders that he should be civilly treated.