Columbus blames the men of Palos for his heavy, unfit ship

… because the ship, so he says, was very heavy and not fit for the work of discovery; and bringing such a ship, so he says, was the doing of the men of Palos, who did not fulfill toward the King and the Queen what they had promised them, to provide vessels fit for that voyage, and did not do it. The Admiral concludes by saying that of all that was in the ship not a lace tip was lost, nor plank nor nail, because she remained as sound as when she sailed, except that she was cut and split somewhat to get out the casks and all the merchandise, and they put all of it ashore and well guarded, as has been said; and he says that he hopes in God that on the return he meant to make from Castile he would find a barrel of gold that those he was to leave would have got in trade, and that they would have found the gold mine and the spicery, and that in such quantity that before three years the Sovereigns would undertake and make ready to go and conquer the Holy House: …