The chief colonists of Uraba and all the friends of order decided to recall Nicuesa from wherever he was, and as the judge, Enciso, was opposed to this measure, they deprived him of the brigantine he had built at his own expense.  Contrary to his will and against that of Vasco Nunez, the adventurer, they decided to go in search of Nicuesa in order that he might settle the dispute about the commandership.  Colmenares, whom I have mentioned above, was commanded to search along those coasts where it was thought Nicuesa wandered abandoned.  It was known that the latter had left Veragua, because of the sterility of the soil.  The colonists instructed Colmenares to bring Nicuesa back as soon as he could find him and to assure him they would be grateful to him if, on his arrival, he succeeded in calming the dissensions which rent the colony.  Colmenares accepted this mission, for he was a personal friend of Nicuesa, and boldly announced that the provisions he had brought were intended as much for Nicuesa as for the colonists of Uraba.  He, therefore, fitted out one of his ships and the brigantine, which had been taken from Enciso, loading them with a part of the provisions he had brought.  He coasted carefully along the neighbouring shores, and finally came upon Nicuesa engaged in building his tower on Cape Marmor.

Nicuesa was the most wretched of men, reduced to a skeleton, covered with rags.  There remained barely sixty of the seven hundred and more companions who had started with him, and the survivors were more to be pitied than the dead.  Colmenares comforted his friend Nicuesa, embracing him with tears, cheering him with words of hope for a change of fortune and speedy success.  He reminded him that the best element of the colonists of Uraba wished for his return, because his authority alone could quiet the dissensions which raged.  Thanking his friend, as became the situation, Nicuesa sailed with him for Uraba.

It is a common thing to observe amongst men that arrogance accompanies success.  After having wept and sighed and poured out complaints for his miseries, after having overwhelmed his rescuer, Colmenares, with thanks and almost rolled at his feet, Nicuesa, when the fear of starvation was removed, began, even before he had seen the colonists of Uraba, to talk airily of his projects of reform and his intention to get possession of all the gold there was.  He said that no one had the right to keep back any of the gold, without his authorisation, or that of his associate Hojeda.  These imprudent words reached the ears of the colonists of Uraba, and roused against Nicuesa the indignation of the partisans of Enciso, Hojeda’s deputy judge, and that of Nunez.  It therefore fell out that Nicuesa, with sixty companions, had hardly landed, so it is reported, before the colonists forced him to re-embark, overwhelming him with threats.  The better intentioned of the colonists were displeased at this demonstration, but fearing a rising of the majority headed by Vasco Nunez, they did not interfere.  Nicuesa was therefore obliged to regain the brigantine, and there remained with him only seventeen of his sixty companions.  It was the calends of March in the year 1511 when Nicuesa set sail, intending to return to Hispaniola and there complain of the usurpation of Vasco Nunez and the violent treatment offered the judge, Enciso.