Wednesday, 26 December 1492
I ordered that a Lombard and a musket be fired, and the King was spellbound when he saw the effect of their force and what they penetrated. When the people heard the shots, they fell to their knees. They brought me a large mask, which had large pieces of gold in the ears and eyes and in other places, which the King himself presented to me. He placed this, along with other jewels of gold, on my head and around my neck. They also gave many things to the men with me. I derived a great deal of pleasure and consolation from these things, and when I realized that this mitigated the trouble and affliction I had experienced by losing the ship, I recognized that Our Lord had caused me to run aground at this place so that I might establish a settlement here. And so many things came to hand here that the disaster was a blessing in disguise. Certainly, if I had not run aground here, I would have kept out to sea without anchoring at this place because it is situated inside a large bay containing two or three banks of shoals. Neither would I have left any of my people here on this voyage; even if I had desired to leave them, I could not have outfitted them well enough, nor given them enough ammunition, provisions, and materials for a fort. It is quite true that many of the people with me have pleaded with me to permit them to remain here.
Now I have ordered that a tower and a fortress be constructed,* very well built, with a large moat. This is not because I believe this to be necessary with these Indians, for I am sure that I could subjugate the entire island - which I believe is larger than Portugal with twice the population - with the men that I have in my company. These Indians are naked, unarmed, and cowardly beyond help. But it is right that this tower be built, and what must be, must be. Since these Indians are so far from Your Highnesses, it is necessary that the people here know your people and what they can do, in order that the Indians may obey Your Highnesses with love and fear.
The men remaining have timbers with which to construct the fortress and provisions of bread and wine for more than a year, as well as seeds for sowing, and the ship’s boat. I am leaving a caulker, a carpenter, a gunner, and a caskmaker among the many men who desire zealously to serve Your Highnesses and who will please me greatly if they find the mine where the gold comes from. Thus, everything that has happened was for this purpose, that this beginning may be made.
All this was the will of God: the ship’s running aground so easily that it could not be felt, with neither wind nor wave; the cowardice of the ship’s master and some of the crew (who were mostly from his part of Spain), who refused my order to cast the stern anchor to draw the ship off and save it; the discovery of this country.
Without God’s intervention this country would not have been known as it has come to be known during our time here, and as it will be known by the people I intend to leave here. I had been sailing all the time with the intention of making discoveries and not remaining anywhere longer than a day unless there was no wind because the Santa Marria was very cumbersome and not suited to the work of discovery. The reason I took that ship in the first place was due to the people of Palos, who did not fulfill to me what they had promised the King and Queen. I should have been given ships suitable for this journey, and the people of Palos did not do that. Of the Santa Maria’s contents, not a leather strap was lost, nor a board, nor a nail, because the ship remained as sound as when she started except that we chopped and split her some in order to remove the large casks and all the cargo. All these things have been placed on land and are well secured.
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