Cibao. Columbus reaches its gold mines and builds Saint Thomas.

After having the Indians he had brought with him publicly baptized in the presence of the royal family, C. Columbus went to Cádiz to join a fleet of seventeen vessels. It carried 1,500 volunteers, young nobles of the best families of the kingdom, together with tools, grain, vegetables and animals of every species of the Old World. He embarked with several churchmen under the orders of a superior furnished by the Pope with very extensive powers for converting the Indians. He set sail on 28 September 1493. He anchored at Port-Réal, near the spot where Cap-Haïtien now stands (22 November). There he learned with grief all that had happened during his absence. He abandoned that harbor and built, east of Monte Cristi, at the mouth of a river, the first European town raised in the New World; he named it Isabela in honor of Isabella of Castile, his benefactress. He then set out for the mines of the Cibao, and after overcoming great obstacles of terrain he arrived there on 12 March 1494 with 400 men, most of them young hidalgos. This first road opened in the New World was called El puerto de los hidalgos (the pass of the gentlemen). Columbus made sure that gold mines existed in that district. He built a fortress there which he named Saint Thomas, in memory of the incredulity of his companions, who had hesitated to follow him into the interior of the island, claiming there were no mines.