in all the islands, was the reason why the Admiral had not provided his vessel with the proper amount of ballast.  Moreover, his plan had been to ballast it in the Women’s Island, whither he had from the first determined to go.  The remedy which the Admiral employed was to fill with sea water, as soon as possible, all the empty barrels which had previously held either wine or fresh water.  In this way the difficulty was remedied.

“The Admiral tells here the reasons for fearing that our Saviour would allow him to become the victim of this tempest, and other reasons which made him hope that God would come to his assistance, and cause him to arrive safe and sound, so that intelligence such as that which he was conveying to the king and queen would not perish with him.  The strong desire which he had to be the bearer of intelligence so important, and to prove the truth of all which he had said, and that all which he had tried to discover had really been discovered, seemed to contribute precisely to inspire him with the greatest fear that he could not succeed.  He confessed, himself, that every mosquito that passed before his eyes was enough to annoy and trouble him.  He attributed this to his little faith, and his lack of confidence in Divine Providence.  On the other hand, he was re-animated by the favors which God had shown him in granting to him so great a triumph as that which he had achieved, in all his discoveries, in fulfilling all his wishes, and in granting that, after having experienced in Castile so many rebuffs and disappointments, all his hopes should at last be more than surpassed.  In one word, as the sovereign master of the universe, had, in the outset, distinguished him in granting all his requests, before he had carried out his expedition for God’s greatest glory, and before it had succeeded, he was compelled to believe now that God would preserve him to complete the work which he had begun.”  Such is Las Casas’s abridgment of Columbus’s words.

“For which reasons he said he ought to have had no fear of the tempest that was raging.  But his weakness and anguish did not leave him a moment’s calm.  He also said that his greatest grief was the thought of leaving his two boys orphans.  They were at Cordova, at their studies.  What would become of them in a strange land, without father or mother? for the king and queen, being ignorant of the services he had rendered them in this voyage, and of the good news which he was bringing to them, would not be bound by any consideration to serve as their protectors.

“Full of this thought, he sought, even in the storm, some means of apprising their highnesses of the victory which the Lord had granted him, in permitting him to discover in the Indies all which he had sought in his voyage, and to let them know that these coasts were free from storms, which is proved, he said, by the growth of herbage and trees even to the edge of the sea.  With this purpose, that, if he perished