Columbus Leaves Isabel: On Second Voyage: March 12, 1494

Christobal Colon returned to the Caribbean Sea in late 1493 on his second voyage to the region. He was looking for gold and 'rich lands'. Still operating under the delusion that he had discovered a new route to India, what he found gave him evidence of what he was seeking. What was actually discovered, of course, was more than he had hoped for, even if it was not what he thought it was.

Over the course of the winter and into March 1494, they would continue to sail and stop and build fortresses and move on, taking samples, writing things down, making temporary allies, discovering Puerto Rico, and Jamaica. More evidence of Colon's hard form of leadership surfaced as the men tried to mutiny and were harshly put down. A list of discoveries was compiled along with a fresh batch of demands that were sent to the King and Queen back in Spain. Columbus got ill and stopped writing his diary, as his son tells us, so a few items about this part of the trip had to be filled in by him.

While recovering at Isabela the fort they were building on the north coast of Hispaniola, Colon had sent Alonso de Hojeda with fourteen men to look for 'the goldfields of Cibao.' Cibao was a local Taino name for that rocky, mountainous region of northern Hispaniola. Along the way he met friendly locals, saw some panning for gold and affirmed it was rich in gold. With this news, Hojeda came back after a few days to tell Columbus.

"On receiving this news, the Admiral [Columbus], who had now recovered from his sickness, was greatly delighted and decided to land in order to examine the nature of the country and decide on a course of action.

"On Wednesday, 12 March 1494, he left Isabel for Cibao in order to see those goldfields with all his men that were fit, both foot and horsemen, leaving a good guard on the two ships and three caravels, all that remained of his fleet. He had had all the shot and weapons of the other ships put aboard his flagship, so that no one could raise a revolt in the others, as many had plotted to do while he was ill. For many had come on this voyage with the idea that the moment they landed they would load themselves with gold and would immediately be rich men (though in fact where gold is found it takes pains, time and industry to seek and collect it) and as things had not succeeded for them according to their hopes they were discontented. This exasperated them, as did also the labour of building the town [Isabel]; they were exhausted too by sickness due to the nature of this new country, the climate and the food. They had been plotting in secret to renounce the Admiral's authority and after taking the remaining ships to return them to Castile."

The leader of this plot, said Columbus' son, was the accountant sent along by the Monarchs in Spain. A court official named Bernal de Pisa was found out with written libels and then left, imprisoned onboard ship while the adventuring continued.

They took all the tools needed to build another fort and as many men as possible to show a good force of numbers, in order to intimidate any locals who might consider attacking them.

"As a greater display of his might, on leaving Isabela and all the other places he came to, he drew up his men in military formation as if marching to war, fully armed with trumpets sounding and banners displayed."

They crossed a pass up in the hills and found beyond a great open plain which they went down into and camped beside a river he caled Rio de las Canas. On the first voyage he had seen the same river from the sea and called it Rio de Oro. Today it's called Yaque del Norte.
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frompp 159-61:  The Four Voyages, Christopher Columbus, edited, translated and with an introduction by JM Cohen, for The Penguin Group, London, 1969