Among the spectators were Bernal Diaz de Pisa, accountant of the fleet, the first conspirator in America; thirteen Benedictine friars, with Boil at their head, who, with Moren Pedro de Margarit, the strategist, respectively represented the religious and military powers; there was Roldan, another insubordinate, the first alcalde of the Espanola; there were Alonzo de Ojeda and Guevara, true knights-errant, who were soon to distinguish themselves:  the first by the capture of the chief Caonabo, the second by his romantic love-affair with Higuemota, the daughter of the chiefess Anacaona.  There was Adrian Mojica, destined shortly to be hanged on the ramparts of Fort Concepcion by order of the Viceroy.  There was Juan de Esquivel, the future conqueror of Jamaica; Sebastian Olano, receiver of the royal share of the gold and other riches that no one doubted to find; Father Marchena, the Admiral’s first protector, friend, and counselor; the two knight commanders of military orders Gallego and Arroyo; the fleet’s physician, Chanca; the queen’s three servants, Navarro, Pena-soto, and Girau; the pilot, Antonio de Torres, who was to return to Spain with the Admiral’s ship and first despatches.  There was Juan de la Cosa, cartographer, who traced the first map of the Antilles; there were the father and uncle of Bartolome de las Casas, the apostle of the Indies; Diego de Penalosa, the first notary public; Fermin Jedo, the metallurgist, and Villacorta, the mechanical engineer.  Luis de Ariega, afterward famous as the defender of the fort at Magdalena; Diego Velasquez, the future conqueror of Cuba; Vega, Abarca, Gil Garcia, Marguez, Maldonado, Beltran and many other doughty warriors, whose names had been the terror of the Moors during the war in Granada.  Finally, there were Diego Columbus, the Admiral’s brother; and among the men-at-arms, one, destined to play the principal role in the conquest of Puerto Rico.  His name was Juan Ponce, a native of Santervas or Sanservas de Campos in the kingdom of Leon.  He had served fifteen years in the war with the Moors as page or shield-bearer to Pedro Nunez de Guzman, knight commander of the order of Calatrava, and he had joined Columbus like the rest—­to seek his fortune in the western hemisphere.

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote 1:  March 15, 1493.]

[Footnote 2:  Literally, “hijos d’algo,” sons of something or somebody.]

[Footnote 3:  La Fuente.  Hista. general de Espana.]

[Footnote 4:  Along the 30th parallel of longitude W. of Greenwich.]

CHAPTER II

THE DISCOVERY

1493

The first island discovered on this voyage lies between 14 deg. and 15 deg. north latitude, near the middle of a chain of islands of different sizes, intermingled with rocks and reefs, which stretches from Trinidad, near the coast of Venezuela, in a north-by-westerly direction to Puerto Rico.  They are divided in two groups, the Windward Islands forming the southern, the Leeward Islands the northern portion of the chain.