Columbus tells Roldán the captive Taíno aboard are costly and dying

… and that it should be so, I said, as soon as I arrived here, that I assured everyone that each might come to me and say what he pleased, and again I say it and assure them. And as to the other matter you speak of, the going to Castile, I, on your account and that of the persons who are with you, believing that some would wish to go, have detained the ships eighteen days beyond the delay, and would have detained them longer, except that the Indians they carry gave them great expense and were dying on them; it seems to me you should not believe yourselves lightly, and should look to your honors more than what they tell me you do, because there is no one whom it touches more, and not give cause that the persons who wish you ill here or in your land have something to say, and avoid that the King and the Queen, our lords, take offense at things in which they expected pleasure. Certainly, when they asked me about the persons here in whom the lord Adelantado could have counsel and trust, I named you before any other, and set your service so high to them that now I am in pain that with these ships I must hear the contrary; …