He had now been appointed by the Spanish sovereigns to command a fleet of three vessels, which had been sent out to provision the new colony.  He had sailed from Cadiz on the thirtieth of April, 1494, and he arrived at Isabella on St. John’s Day of the same year.

Columbus welcomed him with delight, and immediately made him his first-lieutenant in command of the colony.  There needed a strong hand for the management of the colony, for the quarrels which had existed before Columbus went on his Cuban voyage had not diminished in his absence.  Pedro Margarita and Father Boil are spoken of as those who had made the most trouble.  They had come determined to make a fortune rapidly, and they did not propose to give up such a hope to the slow processes of ordinary colonization.  Columbus knew very well that those who had returned to Spain had carried with them complaints as to his own course.  He would have been glad on some accounts to return, himself, at once; but he did not think that the natives of the islands were sufficiently under the power of the new colony to be left in safety.

First of all he sent back four caravels, which had recently arrived from Europe, with five hundred Indians whom he had taken as slaves.  He consigned them to Juan de Fonseca’s care.  He was eager himself to say that he sent them out that they might be converted, to Christianity, and that they might learn the Spanish language and be of use as interpreters.  But, at the same time, he pointed out how easy it would be to make a source of revenue to the Crown from such involuntary emigration.  To Isabella’s credit it is to be said, that she protested against the whole thing immediately; and so far as appears, no further shipments were made in exactly the same way.  But these poor wretches were not sent back to the islands, as she perhaps thought they were.  Fonseca did not hesitate to sell them, or apprentice them, to use our modern phrase, and it is said by Bernaldez that they all died.  His bitter phrase is that Fonseca took no more care of them than if they had been wild animals.

Columbus did not recover his health, so as to take a very active part in affairs for five months after his arrival at San Domingo.  He was well aware that the Indians were vigorously organized, with the intention of driving his people from the island, or treating the colony as they had treated the colony of Navidad.  He called the chief of the Cipangi, named Guarionexius, for consultation.  The interpreter Didacus, who had served them so faithfully, married the king’s sister, and it was hoped that this would be a bond of amity between the two nations.