CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS

AND THE NEW WORLD OF HIS DISCOVERY

A NARRATIVE BY FILSON YOUNG


Volume 5



DESPERATE REMEDIES




CHAPTER I

THE VOYAGE TO CUBA

The sight of the greater part of their fleet disappearing in the
direction of home threw back the unstable Spanish colony into doubt and
despondency. The brief encouragement afforded by Ojeda's report soon
died away, and the actual discomforts of life in Isabella were more
important than visionary luxuries that seemed to recede into the distance
with the vanishing ships. The food supply was the cause of much
discomfort; the jobbery and dishonesty which seem inseparable from the
fitting out of a large expedition had stored the ships with bad wine and
imperfectly cured provisions; and these combined with the unhealthy
climate to produce a good deal of sickness. The feeling against