On arriving at Isabella, Don Bartholomew found it, as usual, a scene of
misery and repining. Many had died during his absence; most were ill.
Those who were healthy complained of the scarcity of food, and those who
were ill, of the want of medicines. The provisions distributed among them,
from the supply brought out a few months before by Pedro Alonzo Nino, had
been consumed. Partly from sickness, and partly from a repugnance to
labor, they had neglected to cultivate the surrounding country, and the
Indians, on whom they chiefly depended, outraged by their oppressions, had
abandoned the vicinity, and fled to the mountains; choosing rather to
subsist on roots and herbs, in their rugged retreats, than remain in the
luxuriant plains, subject to the wrongs and cruelties of the white men.
The history of this island presents continual pictures of the miseries,
the actual want and poverty, produced by the grasping avidity of gold. It
had rendered the Spaniards heedless of all the less obvious, but more
certain and salubrious, sources of wealth. All labor seemed lost that was
to produce profit by a circuitous process. Instead of cultivating the
luxuriant soil around them, and deriving real treasures from its surface,
they wasted their time in seeking for mines and golden streams, and were
starving in the midst of fertility.

No sooner were the provisions exhausted which had been brought out by
Nino, than the colonists began to break forth in their accustomed murmurs.
They represented themselves as neglected by Columbus, who, amidst the
blandishments and delights of a court, thought little of their sufferings.
They considered themselves equally forgotten by government; while, having
no vessel in the harbor, they were destitute of all means of sending home
intelligence of their disastrous situation, and imploring relief.