The king hangs a great gold plate on Columbus’s neck

To give order and haste to finishing the building of the fortress, and to the people who were to stay in it, the Admiral went ashore, and it seemed to him that the king had seen him as he came in the boat; the king went quickly into his house, pretending not to, and sent a brother of his to receive the Admiral, who took him to one of the houses he had given to the Admiral’s people, which was the largest and best of that town. In it they had prepared for him a dais of palm sheaths, where they had him sit. Then the brother sent a squire of his to tell the king that the Admiral was there, as though the king did not know he had come, although the Admiral believed he was pretending in order to do him much more honor. As soon as the squire told him, the cacique, so he says, set off running toward the Admiral, and put on his neck a great plate of gold that he carried in his hand. He stayed there with him until evening, deliberating on what he was to do.