These men frankly admitted that the “christians” were all dead.  The Spaniards had been told so the night before by their Indian interpreter, but they had refused to believe him.  They were now told that the King of Canoaboa(*) and the King Mayreni had killed them and burned the village.

     (*) “Canoaboa” was thought to mean “Land of Gold.”

They said, as the others had done, that Guacanagari was wounded in the thigh and they, like the others, said they would go and summon him.  The Spaniards made them some presents, and they, too, disappeared.

Early the next morning the Admiral himself, with a party, including Dr. Chanca, went ashore.

“And we went where the town used to be, which we saw all burnt, and the clothes of the christians were found on the grass there.  At that time we saw no dead body.  There were among us many different opinions, some suspecting that Guacanagari himself was (concerned) in the betrayal or death of the christians, and to others it did not appear so, as his town was burnt, so that the thing was very doubtful.”

The Admiral directed the whole place to be searched for gold, as he had left orders that if any quantity of it were found, it should be buried.  While this search was being made, he and a few others went to look for a suitable place for a new settlement.  They arrived at a village of seven or eight houses, which the inhabitants deserted at once.  Here they found many things belonging to the christians, such as stockings, pieces of cloth, and “a very pretty mantle which had not been unfolded since it was brought from Castile.”  These, the Spaniards thought, could not have been obtained by barter.  There was also one of the anchors of the ship which had gone ashore on the first voyage.

When they returned to the site of La Navidad they found many Indians, who had become bold enough to come to barter gold.  They had shown the place where the bodies of eleven Spaniards lay “covered already by the grass which had grown over them.”  They all “with one voice” said that Canoaboa and Mayreni had killed them.  But as, at the same time, they complained that some of the christians had taken three Indian wives, and some four, it seemed likely that a just resentment on the part of the islanders had had something to do with their death.

The next day the Admiral sent out a caravel to seek for a suitable place for a town, and he himself went out to look for one in a different direction.  He found a secure harbor and a good place for a settlement, But he thought it too far from the place where he expected to find a gold mine.  On his return, he found the caravel he had sent out.  As it was coasting along the island, a canoe had come out to it, with two Indians on board, one of whom was a brother of Guacanagari.  This man begged the party to come and visit the cacique.  The “principal men” accordingly went on shore, and found him in bed, apparently suffering from his wounded thigh, which he showed them in bandages.  They judged from appearances that he was telling them the truth.