Under these favorable auspices Ponce made known his desire to see the places where the chiefs obtained the yellow metal for the disks which, as a distinctive of their rank, they wore as medals round their neck.  Guaybana responded with alacrity to his Spanish brother’s wish, and accompanied him on what modern gold-seekers would call “a prospecting tour” to the interior.  The Indian took pride in showing him the rivers Manatuabon, Manati, Sibuco, and others, and in having their sands washed in the presence of his white friends, little dreaming that by so doing he was sealing the doom of himself and people.

Ponce was satisfied with the result of his exploration, and returned to la Espanola in the first months of 1509, taking with him the samples of gold collected, and leaving behind some of his companions, who probably then commenced to lay the foundations of Caparra.  It is believed that Guaybana accompanied him to see and admire the wonders of the Spanish settlement.  The gold was smelted and assayed, and found to be 450 maravedis per peso fine, which was not as fine as the gold obtained in la Espanola, but sufficiently so for the king of Spain’s purposes, for he wrote to Ponce in November, 1509:  “I have seen your letter of August 16th.  Be very diligent in searching for gold mines in the island of San Juan; take out as much as possible, and after smelting it in la Espanola, send it immediately.”

On August 14th of the same year Don Fernando had already written to the captain thanking him for his diligence in the settlement of the island and appointing him governor ad interim.

Ponce returned to San Juan in July or the beginning of August, after the arrival in la Espanola of Diego, the son of Christopher Columbus, with his family and a new group of followers, as Viceroy and Admiral.  The Admiral, aware of the part which Ponce had taken in the insurrection of Roldan against his father’s authority, bore him no good-will, notwithstanding the king’s favorable disposition toward the captain, as manifested in the instructions which he received from Ferdinand before his departure from Spain (May 13, 1509), in which his Highness referred to Juan Ponce de Leon as being by his special grace and good-will authorized to settle the island of San Juan Bautista, requesting the Admiral to make no innovations in the arrangement, and charging him to assist and favor the captain in his undertaking.

After Don Diego’s arrival in la Espanola he received a letter from the king, dated September 15, 1509, saying, “Ovando wrote that Juan Ponce had not gone to settle the island of San Juan for want of stores; now that they have been provided in abundance, let it be done.”

But the Admiral purposely ignored these instructions.  He deposed Ponce and appointed Juan Ceron as governor in his place, with a certain Miguel Diaz as High Constable, and Diego Morales for the office next in importance.  His reason for thus proceeding in open defiance of the king’s orders, independent of his resentment against Ponce, was the maintenance of the prerogatives of his rank as conceded to his father, of which the appointment of governors and mayors over any or all the islands discovered by him was one.