and those in power had not been trained to handle large groups of men
who needed wise directing. In those days, and especially in Spain, the
general education was not the sort to develop each individual man toward
self-reliance, but to make him part of a big organization where he need
not think for himself, but need merely obey orders. If, then, those
appointed to issue the orders were not men of wisdom and sense, things
were bound to go wrong. Bartholomew Columbus, whom the sovereigns had
appointed lord lieutenant for life, had not been a very wise governor,
as will soon be apparent.

It was only a little while before the Admiral sailed home with Agnado
that gold mines had been discovered on the south coast of Espanola.
Bartholomew was therefore instructed to take a certain number of men to
the south coast and establish a seaport at the nearest suitable point to
the mines. That was how the present town of Santo Domingo (now shortened
into San Domingo) came into existence, a town that in time grew to be so
important that it gave its name to the whole island.

In order to start building San Domingo, Bartholomew, or, as he should be
styled, Don Bartolome, took nearly all the working population out of
Isabella. The only ones left were those engaged in building two caravels
which the Admiral had started constructing. The men under Don Bartolome
appear to have entered into building the new port with fairly good will;
for there really was a little gold in the vicinity, and they had been
promised payment for their services. If Don Bartolome had stuck to his
post, everything might have gone well; but scarcely were the first few
houses completed when he decided, most unwisely, to make an expedition
far into the west of the island, where there was supposed to be a rich
Indian kingdom called Xaragua. Of course when Bartolome reached Xaragua,
he found the tribe to be, as usual, a "poor people." He could collect no