"At sunrise the king visited the Admiral on board the _Nina_ and
entreated him not to indulge in grief, for he would give him all he had;
that he had already assigned the wrecked Spaniards on shore two large
houses, and if necessary would grant others and as many canoes as could
be used in bringing the goods and crews to land--which in fact he had
been doing all the day before without the slightest trifle being
purloined."

Nor did his aid end here; when Columbus decided to build a fort and
storehouse out of the _Santa Maria's_ timbers, the natives helped
in that too.

In the fort it was decided to leave about forty men "with a provision of
bread and wine for more than a year, seed for planting, the long boat of
the ship, a calker, a carpenter, a gunner, and many other persons who
have earnestly desired to serve your Highnesses and oblige me by
remaining here and searching for the gold mine."

Columbus was, in short, planting the first settlement in the New World.
As the disaster had occurred on Christmas morning, he called the town
"La Navidad" (the Nativity). To govern it he left a trusty friend, Diego
de Arana, whose sister was little Fernando's mother. Columbus drew up a
few excellent rules for the conduct of his colonists, and made them a
wise address besides. Then he loaded a gun and fired it into the hull of
his stranded ship, just "to strike terror into the natives and make them
friendly to the Spaniards left behind." This done, he said good-by to
the colony, telling them how he hoped to find, on his return from
Castile, a ton of gold and spices collected by them in their trade with
the natives; and "in such abundance that before three years the king and