But it was not at all easy to get to Hayti in those leaky ships of his.  In fact it was not possible to get there with them at all; for on the twenty-third of June, 1503, when he had reached the island of Jamaica he felt that his ships would not hold out any longer.  They were full of worm-holes; they were leaking badly; they were strained and battered from the storms.  He determined, therefore, to find a good harbor somewhere on the island of Jamaica and go in there for repairs.  But he could not find a good one; his ships grew worse and worse; every day’s delay was dangerous; and for fear the ships would sink and carry the crews to the bottom of the sea, Columbus decided to run them ashore anyhow.  This he did; and on the twelfth of August, 1503, he deliberately headed for the shore and ran his ships aground in a little bay on the island of Jamaica still known as Sir Christopher’s Cove.  And there the fleet was wrecked.

The castaways lashed the four wrecks together; they built deck-houses and protections so as to make themselves as comfortable as possible, and for a whole year Columbus and his men lived there at Sir Christopher’s Cove on the beautiful island of Jamaica.

It proved anything but beautiful for them, however.  It makes a good deal of difference, you know, in enjoying things whether you are well and happy.  If you are hungry and can’t get anything to eat, the sky does not look so blue or the trees so green as if you were sitting beneath them with a jolly picnic party and with plenty of lunch in the baskets.

It was no picnic for Columbus and his companions.  That year on the island of Jamaica was one of horror, of peril, of sickness, of starvation.  Twice, a brave comrade named Diego Mendez started in an open boat for Hayti to bring relief.  The first time he was nearly shipwrecked, but the second time he got away all right.  And then for months nothing was heard of him, and it was supposed that he had been drowned.  But the truth was that Governor Ovando, had an idea that the king and queen of Spain were tired of Columbus and would not feel very bad if they never saw him again.  He promised to send help, but did not do so for fear he should get into trouble.  And the relief that the poor shipwrecked people on Jamaica longed for did not come.

Then some of the men who were with Columbus mutinied and ran away.  In fact, more things happened during this remarkable fourth voyage of Columbus than I can begin to tell you about.  The story is more wonderful than is that of Robinson Crusoe, and when you are older you must certainly read it all and see just what marvelous adventures Columbus and his men met with and how bravely the little Ferdinand Columbus went through them all.  For when Ferdinand grew up he wrote a life of his father, the Admiral, and told the story of how they all played Robinson Crusoe at Sir Christopher’s Cove.

At last the long-delayed help was sent by Governor Ovando, and one day the brave Diego Mendez came sailing into Sir Christopher’s Cove.  And Columbus forgave the rebels who had run away; and on the twenty-eighth of June, 1504, they all sailed away from the place, that, for a year past, had been almost worse than a prison to them all.