Columbus leaves Santo Tomás for Isabela, slowed by floods

He left as captain and warden a gentleman of Aragon, and commander, who was called don Pedro Margarite, a person of much esteem, and with him 52 men. Afterwards he sent more, and there came to be as many as 300, counting craftsmen, so that the fortress might be finished, and others to defend it. And having left his instruction and the rest ordered, he took the road back to la Isabela, with the intention of dispatching himself as quickly as he could to go exploring, as will be told. For this reason he left on Friday, the 21st of March, and on the road he met the pack train returning with the provisions for which he had sent, and he sent it on to the fortress. And because the rivers were running very high with floods, since it rained much in the mountains, he had to go through the towns more slowly than he wished. The people began to eat caçabí, or bread, and ajes, and the other provisions of the Indians, which the Indians gave them with very good will, and he ordered them to be given in return glass beads and other little things of small value that he carried.