These
last he held with a firm hand as long as the voyage lasted; Christopher
could always control men at sea, but on land it was another matter. Even
though _he_ might have clear notions of the difficulty of planting
a colony in new territory, how would these adventurers, and these high-
born young gentlemen who had never worked, and these hundred wretched
stowaways who, after Columbus had refused to take them, had hidden in
the vessels until well out to sea--how would all these behave when it
was time to fell trees, build houses, dig ditches, and cut roads? And
then again, good Admiral, why did you make the great mistake of bringing
no women colonists with you? How could men found homes and work when
there were no wives and little ones to be housed and fed?
Of the better sort who accompanied this second expedition there were a
few, but only a few, solid, reliable individuals whose society must have
been a comfort to the Admiral; among them, the faithful Juan de la Cosa,
the Palos pilot; James Columbus, or as the Spaniards called him, Diego
Colon, faithful to his celebrated brother, but unfortunately somewhat
stupid; Antonio de las Casas, father of the young priest who later
became the champion of the Indians and who wrote Columbus's biography;
Juan Ponce de Leon, an intrepid aristocrat who was destined to discover
Florida; and Doctor Chanca, a physician and botanist who was to write an
account of the vegetables and fruits of the western lands.
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