"
Columbus was, in short, planting the first settlement in the New World.
As the disaster had occurred on Christmas morning, he called the town
"La Navidad" (the Nativity). To govern it he left a trusty friend, Diego
de Arana, whose sister was little Fernando's mother. Columbus drew up a
few excellent rules for the conduct of his colonists, and made them a
wise address besides. Then he loaded a gun and fired it into the hull of
his stranded ship, just "to strike terror into the natives and make them
friendly to the Spaniards left behind." This done, he said good-by to
the colony, telling them how he hoped to find, on his return from
Castile, a ton of gold and spices collected by them in their trade with
the natives; and "in such abundance that before three years the king and
queen may undertake the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre."
On January 4, 1493, just a year after Columbus had been dismissed from
Granada for asking to be made Admiral and Viceroy of the undiscovered
lands in the west, he turned his back on those lands now discovered and
started home. Not, however, with three ships, for we have learned what
happened to the _Santa Maria_; not even with two ships, for we have
_not_ yet learned what happened to the _Pinta_, which Martin
Pinzon commanded.
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