really started, they became terrified and sent their chiefs to ask
Columbus's pardon; Columbus promptly declared that the light of the moon
would return if the Indians would faithfully promise to treat the
Spaniards kindly and supply them with food. The credulous creatures
hastened to procure it; and as they brought it to the shore, the moon
kindly emerged from the black shadow that had covered it. Result, the
Indians believed Columbus to be a superior being and from that time on
they fed him and his men well. This eclipse was on February 29, 1504.

But even with plenty of food the months of waiting were long and dreary.
Had the brave Diego Mendez gone to the bottom? He must have perished,
thought the Admiral, for surely if he had reached San Domingo alive even
the harsh Comendador Ovando could not have refused to send aid to
stranded countrymen on a savage island! But why not, good Admiral? Had
not this same Ovando refused to let you enter the harbor of San Domingo
last year when the frightful hurricane was gathering?

Yet that was what happened. Ovando, whose heart, if he ever had one, had
shriveled to the size of a mustard grain, practically refused to send
help. On hearing Mendez' tale he said he was sorry for the Admiral and
his men, but he did not say he would send them a ship. Mendez kept at
him, telling him very emphatically that the one hundred and thirty
stranded Spaniards would certainly die unless soon rescued; still Ovando
said he was sorry, but did not offer to send relief. Instead, scoundrel
that he was, he _did_ send a small caravel, very small indeed, so
that it could not accommodate the forlorn men, and could not carry them
any provisions. The captain, one of Roldan's rebels, was carefully
instructed merely to see if Columbus and his shipmates were still alive,
and then to come back and report. The Roldan rebel took his caravel to
Don Christopher's Cove, rowed out in a small trailer until within