Although the Spaniards were thus secure from starvation for the present,
their position was most critical. The journey to the easternmost extremity
of Jamaica would probably not be unattended with difficulty and danger,
for it must be effected through the midst of Indian tribes, hostile to
each other, and therefore probably not unanimous in being friendly towards
strangers. But the most formidable obstacle to communication with the
government of Hispaniola was the strait of forty leagues' breadth, full of
tumbling breakers and rushing currents, which separated the two islands.
However, it was necessary that the attempt should be made; and Diego
Mendez, though he considered it to be "not merely difficult, but
impossible, to cross in so small a vessel as a canoe," volunteered for the
service, after all the other Spaniards had declined to undertake it. He
was to be the bearer of a letter from the admiral to Ovando, asking him to
send a vessel to release the castaways from their imprisonment, and of a
despatch to the Sovereigns, giving a detailed account of the Admiral's
voyage and a glowing description of the riches of Veragua. This despatch
is very characteristic of the writer, bearing, as it does, the marks of
strong enthusiasm, of almost fanatical superstition, of confidence in the
midst of despair, and of exultation in the face of ruin. Describing his
reflections during the storm at the mouth of the river Bethlehem, he
breaks into the following rhapsody, which, probably in perfect good faith,
dwells on the contrast between the goodness of God and the bad faith of
man, in a way which ought to have touched Ferdinand nearly. It is worth
quoting at full length, as an example of the wild fervour of a rapt
enthusiast.

"Wearied and sighing," writes Columbus, "I fell into a slumber, when I
heard a piteous voice saying to me, 'O fool, and slow to believe and serve
thy God, who is the God of all! What did He more for Moses, or for His
servant David, than He has done for thee? From the time of thy birth He