"
So out of the wreck of the Santa Maria Columbus built a fort, and
from the many who begged to be left behind he chose forty-four,
appointing one of them, Diego de Arana, as Governor. He called the
fort La Navida or The Nativity in memory of the day upon which it
was founded. The island itself he called Espa?ola or Little Spain.
Then on Friday the 4th of January, 1493, the Nina spread her sails
and slowly glided away, leaving in that far island amid the unknown
seas the first colony of white men ever settled in the west.
Two days after Columbus set forth upon his homeward voyage, he
fell in again with the Pinta. The master had found no gold, so he
determined to join Columbus once more. He now came on board and
tried to make his peace with Columbus, but the Admiral received him
coldly, for he had little faith in his excuses. And now once more
together, the two little vessels sailed homeward. But soon storms
arose, the ships were battered by wind, tossed about hither and
thither by waves, and at length separated again. More than once
Columbus feared that his tiny vessel would be engulfed in the stormy
seas, and the results of his great enterprise never be known. But
at length the shores of Portugal were sighted, and on Friday, the
15th of March, 1493, he landed Again at Palos, in Spain, from whence
he had set forth more than seven months before.
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