with a garrison of 56 men, among whom were workmen of all kinds for building the castle, which was constructed of clay and timber, as of sufficient strength to resist the efforts of any number of Indians that might come against it.  On breaking ground for the foundations of the fort, and cutting a rock to form its ditches, at two fathoms below the surface, they found several nests made of hay and straw, containing instead of eggs three or four round stones as large as oranges, as artificially made as if they had been cannon-balls [10].  In the river that runs at the foot of the hill on which the castle was built, they found stones of several colours, some of them large, of pure marble, and others of jasper.

Leaving orders for finishing the fortifications of fort St Thomas, the admiral set out on his return for Isabella on Friday the 21st of March.  Near the Green River he met the escort of mules with provisions, which he sent on to the fort[11]; and was constrained to remain some time at the green river on account of the excessive rains which then fell.  While afterwards endeavouring to find the fords of the Rio Verde and Rio del Oro, which is larger than the Ebro, he had to remain for several days among the towns of the Indians, subsisting his whole party on the Indian bread and garlick, which the natives parted with for a small price.  On Sunday the 29th of March he returned to Isabella, where melons were already grown and fit for eating, although the seed had only been put into the ground two months before.  Cucumbers came up in twenty days.  A wild vine of the country having been pruned, had produced large and excellent grapes.  On the 30th of March a peasant gathered some ears of wheat which had only been sown in the latter end of January.  There were vetches likewise, but much larger than the seed they had brought from Spain; these had sprung up in three days after they were sown, and the produce was fit to eat after twenty-five days.  The stones of fruit set in the ground sprouted in seven days.  Vine branches shot out in the same time, and in twenty-five days they gathered green grapes.

Sugar canes budded in seven days.  All this wonderful rapidity of vegetation proceeded from the temperature of the climate, which was not unlike that of the south of Spain, being rather cool than hot at the present season of the year.  The waters likewise were cold, pure, and wholesome; so that upon the whole the admiral was well satisfied with the soil and air, and with the people of the country.

On Tuesday the 1st of April, intelligence was brought by a messenger from fort St Thomas, that all the Indians of that country had withdrawn from the neighbourhood, and that a cacique named Caunabo was making preparations to attack the fort.  Knowing how inconsiderable the people of that country were, the admiral was very little alarmed by this news, and was especially confident in the horses which were in that garrison, as he knew